LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

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OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 



ON 



COLUMBUS. 



WITH 

OBSERVATIONS ON CONTROVERTED POINTS AND 

CRITICISMS. 



BY 



RICHARD H. CLARKE, LL.D. 







h^^%^^/ J 



RICHARD H, CLARKE, 

NEW YORK, 

1893. 



Entered accordinff to Act of Congress, in the Year 189J, by 

RICHARD H. CLARKE, 
In the Office of the Librarian ol Congress, at Washington. 



BURR PRINTtNQ HOUSE, 



TO 

§ttr gomtr^: 

Discovered by Columbus, Liberated by Washington ; 

IN WHICH 

The Love of Liberty is only Equalled by the Love of Justice ; 
Union is Enhanced by Diversity, 

AND 

Perpetuated by the Love of Country ; 

IN which 

Man and Religion are Free ; 

Civilization and Progress Crowned by the Arts and Sciences ; 

AND 

Equal Laws Prevail ; 
This Work is Affectionately Dedicated 

BY 



PREFACE. 



MuCh as has been written of Columbus, and numerous as are 
the works published in regard to his great discovery, especially 
during the quarto-centennial celebrations, there is a widespread 
ignorance among the people in regard to many important points. 
This may be partly attributable to the want of works in one 
volume and of convenient size ; but many and serious miscon- 
ceptions of events in his life and services, of his motives, of his 
public and private character, and of important details, as well as 
of salient points in his c areer^ have become widely circulated of 
late by adverse ^iticism and hostile methods of treatment. Not 
a few able pens and potent names have been enlisted in unfriendly 
comment, and controverted points have been handled with foren- 
sic and partisan animosity. The spirit with which many of these 
phases of the subject have been handled would be worthy of 
living controversies in which Columbus were now a living par- 
ticipant, or would seem appropriate to a contemporary public 
trial in which he were the indicted or impeached official arraigned 
at the bar of public justice. 

On the other hand, excessive eulogy and blind advocacy, in 
other quarters, have seemed to invite opposition, and it has been 
cogently said that the undue hostility to Columbus, which has 
been manifested in recent publications, is the reaction which was 
awakened by the spirit of resistance to injudicious and indis- 
criminate laudation. These elements have rendered both ex- 
tremes unreliable and devoid of historical calmness and judg- 
ment. A well-balanced mind and sober historical pen — that of 
Mr. John Fiske, of Cambridge — has pronounced this reaction 
more than energetic — as, in fact, violent. Hence it may be said 
that the works of Count Roselly de Lorgues and Justin Winsor 
have equally lost that recognition to which industrious research 
would otherwise have entitled them. Of the latter, Mr. Fiske 
has justly said : ' ' No one can deny that Las Casas was a keen 



Vl PREFACE. 

judge of men, and that his standard of right and wrong was quite 
as lofty as any one has reached in our time. He had a much 
more intimate knowledge of Columbus than any modern historian 
can ever hope to acquire, and he always speaks of him with 
warm admiration and respect ; but how could Las Casas ever 
have respected the feeble, mean-spirited driveller whose portrait 
Mr. Winsor asks us to accept as that of the discoverer of 
America?" The vast importance of the discovery achieved by 
Columbus, the immense results and unparalleled benefits result- 
ing from his personal services to mankind, while not sufficient to 
justify a travesty of history, should at least make every true m.an 
just and impartial in relating the history of that discover}^ and of 
those services, I have aimed with honest purpose to place 
myself with the latter in the preparation of these pages, and in 
handling controverted points I have followed this course ; but 
when this method resulted in a conviction that positive wrong 
had been done to Columbus, as in the charge that he deserted 
his wife and family when he left Portugal for Spain, and in that 
other more received impression that Columbus was never mar- 
ried to Beatrix Enriquez, the mother of his son and historian, 
Fernando, then I have espoused the cause of tjuth_and justice 
with energy and zeal. On controverted points I have endeav- 
ored to be exact and ample in detail, and in order to make the 
work complete, have ~0ven a'^fuir^'history of the personal_.and 
public life_and career of Columbus. In leading up to him and 
hTs'work, I have brought in the voyages of the Northmen in the 
tenth and succeeding centuries, and have related with greater 
detail the expeditions and explorations of the Portuguese on the 
west and southern coasts of Africa, in search of Southern Asia. 
I have taken pleasure in vindicating the great name of Las Casas 
against the common statement that he was the originator of 
African slavery in America, and in defending Americus Ves- 
pucius against the charge of having purposely robbed Columbus 
of the honor of bestowing his name upon the new world which 
he discovered. A vindication of Columbus seemed scarcely 
necessary, even after such adverse accounts as those of Harrisse 
and Winsor, for the latter have had little effect on the reputation 
and honor of Columbus, since he has now received from mankind 
and from the nations of the earth, and especially from our own 
country, such honors as have never before been paid to any man. 



LIST OF THE PRINCIPAL AUTHORS CONSULT- 
ED IN THE PREPARATION OF THIS WORK. 

Fernando Colombo, " Historia della Vita e dei Fatti dell' Ammiraglio Don Cristo- 

foro Colombo, suo padre," Venezia, 1686. 
Navarrete, " Colleccion Diplomatica." 

Spotorno, " Della Origine e Delia Patria di Cristoforo Colombo." 
Las Casas, " Historia de las Indias." 
iVIunoz, "Historia del Nuovo Mundo." 

Herrera, " General History of the Voyages and Conquests of Castilians." 
Oviedo y Valdez, " Historia Nat. y gen. de las Indias." 
" Letter of Christopher Columbus to their Majesties." 
Malte Brun, " Geographie Universelle." 
Humboldt, " Histoire de la Geographie." 
Gomera, " Historia de las Indias." 
Feragallo, " Cristoforo Colombo in Portogallo." 
Humboldt, " Cosmos." 

Irving, " The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus and his Companions." 
Lafitare, " Conquetes Portugais. " 
Oviedo, " Cronica de las Indias." 

Cura de los Palacios, MS., " Hist. Ferdinand and Isabella." 
Peter Martyr, " Letters and Decades of the Ocean Sea." 
Charlevoix, " Histoire de St. Domingo." 

De Lorgues, " Histoire de la Vie et des Voyages de C. Colomb." 
De Lorgues, " L"Ambassadeur de Dieu." 
Mariana, " Historia de Espana." 
Ramusio, " Della Navigazioni e Viaggi." 
Fernando Columbus, "Journal of Columbus." 
Humboldt, " Examen Critique." 
Barros, " Asia Portugueza." 
Robertson, " History of America." 
Hakluyt, " Collection de Voyages." 
Herrera, " Historia des Indias." 
" Letter of Dr. Chanca," " Raccolta di Viaggi," 
Christopher Columbus, " Memoria del Almirante." 
Fernando Colombo, "The Admiral's Narrative of his Third Voyage." 
Marmocchi, " Raccolta di Viaggi," " Letter to the' Governess of the Infanta Don Juan.** 
Christopher Columbus, " Letter from Jamaica to their Majesties." 
Diego Mendez, " Narrative." 
Francesco Tarducci, "The Life of Christopher Columbus." Translated by Henry F. 

Brownson. 
Rev. Arthur George Knight, S. J., " The Life of Christopher Columbus." 
General James Grant Wilson, " Memorials and Footprints of Columbus," in Bulletin 

of the American Geographical Society, 1884, No. 2. 



Vlll LIST OF AUTHORITIES. 

Cotolendy, " La Vie de Cristophe Colomb et la D6couverte." 

Giralomo Benzoni, " La Historia del Nuovo Mundo. " 

R. H. Major's "Letters of Columbus," Hakluyt Society, 1847. 

Prescott's " Ferdinand and Isabella." 

" Columbus and How he Received and Transmitted the Spirit of Discovery," by Jus- 
tin Winsor. 

" The Discovery of America," by John Fiske. 

" Have We a Portrait of Columbus?" Charles P. Daly, 1893. 

The Marquis de Belloy's "Columbus and the Discovery of America." English 
Translation, 1878. 

" Christoforo Colombo," by M. A. Lazzaroni, Milano, 1892. 

"The Wife of Columbus," by Nicolau Florentino (Pereira) and Regina Maney, N. Y.> 
1893. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 



Introductory — The new and the old worlds each ignorant of the existence of the other 
when Columbus discovered America — Views of the learned on the existence of 
continents and great islands beyond the western ocean prior to and at the time 

• of the discovery — The sea of darkness — Christopher Columbus meets the preju- 
dices and opinions of the learned world, and breaks the spell — The man of 
genius and achievement 13 

CHAPTER n. 

Birth of Columbus — Controversy over his birthplace — His parentage, early 
boyhood, education — A weaver of woollen goods — Becomes a sailor at the age 
of fourteen — Early voyages — Conditions of commerce and customs of warfare 
in the fifteenth century — The Colombos, a family of naval and maritime adven- 
ture — The naval services of Columbus — Adventures and encounters at sea — At 
Lisbon, Madeira, Funchal — His first marriage — -Makes maps for a living — 
Residence at Funchal — Birth of his son Diego — Death of his first wife — 
His hair turns gray — Voyage to Iceland — His plan of western Atlantic dis- 
coveries — His studies 24 

CHAPTER III. 

Pioneer discoveries of the Portuguese in the fifteenth century — Prince Henry 
the Navigator, of Portugal, the precursor of Columbus — Character of Columbus 
— Residence at Lisbon — Maritime history and spirit of the age — Thirst for new 
discoveries — Columbus studies ancient and modern authors — The foundations 
upon which Columbus built his theory of western and undiscovered countries — 
His enthusiasm and firmness — Correspondence with Dr. Toscanelli — Columbus 
announces his theory and plan — Proposals to Venice, to Genoa, and their rejec- 
tion — Presents them to the King of Portugal — Again rejected — Bad treatment 
— Columbus shakes the dust of Portugal from his feet — An accusation refuted. 49 

CHAPTER IV. 

Columbus in Spain — Negotiations with Spanish noblemen — Ferdinand and Isa- 
bella — Columbus at the Spanish court — Royal audiences — Presents his plan- 
Columbus at Salamanca — Follows the court— A soldier — Refusal^^— Departure 
from court — Columbus at the Convent of La Rabida — Visits Lisbon — Sends his 
brother to England — Renews his application to Spain — Delays — Departure — 
Recall — Renewal of Negotiations — Success — Terms of compact between Colum- 
bus and the Spanish sovereigns — Cristoval Colon — Lofty aspirations 7S 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER V. 



Columbus at Cordova — His social position — Beatrix Enriquez — Second marriage 
— Birth of their son Fernando — First origin of the question raised as to the 
second marriage of Columbus — Nicolao Antonio — Palma y Freytas — -Spotorno 
— Napione — Navarrete — Count Roselly de Lorgues — Cancellieri — Washington 
Irving — Humboldt — The Jesuit, Father Knight — The question discussed — 
Thirty reasons sustaining the marriage of Columbus and Beatrix — Lazzaroni's 
" Cristoforo Colombo" sustains the second marriage — Copious extracts there- 
from — The judgment of an American woman — Constance Goddard Du Bois's 
"Columbus and Beatrix" — Extracts — Conclusion lOO 

CHAPTER VI. 

Preparations — First voyage — The Pinta disabled — Arrival at the Canaries — The 
Pinta repaired — Escape from Portuguese vessels — Fears of the sailors — Colum- 
bus discovers the line of no variations of the needle — Indications of land — 
Watches day and night — His devotions — Masses of seaweeds — Fears of sailors 
and mutiny — Columbus overcomes them — Hope revived — Columbus sees a 
light on the shore — The new world is discovered — The landing 158 

CHAPTER VII. 

Columbus cruises among the Bahama Islands— St. Mary of the Conception — 
Fernandina, now Exuma — Saometa — Island of Isabella— Columbus in search of 
Cipango and the kingdom of the Grand Khan — Discovery and exploration of 
Cuba — In search of the fabled island of Babeque — Columbus deserted by the 
Pinta — Discovery of tobacco and the potato — Discovery and exploration of His- 
paniola — Shipwreck — Intercourse with the Indians — Guacanagari's hospitality — 
Fortress of La Navidad erected — Columbus sails for Spain — Meets the deserter 
Pinzon and the Pinta — Skirmish with the natives— Storms at sea — The Azores 
— At the island of St. Mary's — Lands in Portugal — At the Portuguese court — 
Return to Palos., , , , , , 183 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Columbus received with joy at Palos — Triumphant entry into Barcelona — Recep- 
tion at court — Honors paid to him by Ferdinand and Isabella — The pope 
divides the new lands of the world between Spain and Portugal — Preparations 
of Columbus for a second voyage — Difficulties with officials — Second voj^age of 
Columbus 210 

CHAPTER IX. 

Columbus crosses the Atlantic a second time — Discovers the Caribbee Islands — 
Guadeloupe Island — Cruises among the Caribbees — Cannibals — Arrival at His- 
paniola — Finds the fortress and garrison of La Navidad destroyed — The Cacique 
Guacanagari — The city of Isabella founded — Disease among the Spaniards — 
Exploits of Alonzo de Ojeda — Ships sent back to Spain — Dissatisfaction and 
mutiny in the colony — The admiral at Cibao — The interior of the island ; the 
natives ; their character, customs, religion, and traditions — Sickness — Spanish 
soldiers distributed through the island — Disappointment and discontent against 
Columbus — Enmitv of Father Boil , 236 



CONTENTS. xi 



CHAPTER X. 



The condition of Hispatiiola — Columbus makes a voyage of exploration to Cuba 
— Discovers Jamaica'— The Queen's Gardens — East and southern coast of Cuba — 
South side of Jamaica — Voyage along the south side of Hispaniola — Columbus 
falls into a deep lethargy — Return to Isabella — Bartholomew Columbus — 
Henry VH. might have taken the place of Spain as the patron of Columbus — 
Margarite, the rebel, and Father Boil ; their departure from Hispaniola — 
Caonabo besieges Fort St. Thomas — Arrival of ships from Spain — Indian 
slaves — Columbus subjugates the rebellious natives — Tribute imposed — Colum- 
bus intrigued against at court — Aguado sent out to investigate his conduct — 
Aguado's arrogance toward the admiral — Mines discovered at Hayna — Colum- 
bus returns to Spain with Aguado 278 

CHAPTER XI. 

Columbus arrives in Spain — Awaits an invitation to court — Wears in public the 
habit of a Franciscan monk — His reception at Burgos — Proposes a third voyage 
- — Refuses a principality — Establishes a mayorazgo — Makes his will — Delays 
suffered from the Bureau of the Indies — Third voyage — Discovers Trinidad — 
Sails through the Gulf of Paria — Discovers the continent — Discovers the 
equatorial swelling of the earth and the Gulf Stream — His theories and specula- 
tions — Reaches Hispaniola — The Adelantado — Military posts — Conspiracy and 
rebellion of Roldan — Treatment of the rebels— Insurrections of the chief Gua- 
rionex — The Adelantado's campaign in Ciguay— Confusion in Hispaniola — 
Roldan and the rebels take possession of Xaragua — Negotiations with the 
rebels ; their treachery ; Columbus compelled to accept their terms — Colum- 
bus and the Indians — Why his name was not conferred on the new world — Las 
Casas not the originator of African slavery in America — Americus Vespucius. . 332 

CHAPTER XII. 

Roldan resumes his office as alcalde mayor — His arrogance— Columbus grants 
lands to Roldan's followers — Indian service— Rebels returning to Spain — Rol- 
dan and Ojeda — The admiral despondent — Vision of Columbus— Improved 
condition of affairs — Intrigues against Columbus at the court of Spain — Boba- 
dilla appointed to examine into the affairs of Hispaniola and the administration 
of Columbus— His violence — Columbus summoned before him — Arrested and 
placed in chains — Sent to Spain in this condition — Sensation in Spain — Appears 
at court— Bobadilla superseded by Ovando — Columbus proposes to redeem the 
Holy Sepulchre — Proposals for a fourth voyage— Departure for the new world 
— His precautions — Signature ,,,.,,,, 406 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Fourth voyage of Columbus— Repelled by Ovando from San Domingo— Foretells 
an approaching storm — Escapes unharmed, while Bobadilla and Roldan are lost 
at sea— Discovers the continent at Honduras — Severe illness— Veragua— Ex- 
ploration of the Mosquito coast — Abandons the search for a central passage to 
the other sea — Attempted colony at Belen River — Hostile encounters with the 
natives — Abandons Veragua— Loses two ships— The remaining two ships, with 
the admiral and his companions on board, stranded on the coast of Jamaica — 



Xn CONTENTS. 

Endures disaster heroically — Heroism of Diego Mendez — Desperate condition 
of Columbus — Mutiny of the Porras brothers — The natives of Jamaica — Eclipse 
of the moon — Mendez and Fiesco carry word of his condition to Ovando — 
Ovando's conduct— Battle with the Porras rebels — Ovando's administration at 
Hispaniola — Escape from Jamaica — Visit to Hispaniola — Return to Spain 475 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Columbus enters Spain — His sickness, poverty and distress — Application to the 
court for justice — Death of Queen Isabella — Columbus has himself conveyed to 
court — His petitions for redress and the restitution of his rights unheeded — In- 
gratitude of King Ferdinand — The last illness of Columbus — His death — His 
epitaph — Removals of his remains — His family — His character and services — 
The quadri-centennial celebration of the discovery of America by Columbus. . . 554 



'Old andNewLights on Columbus. 



CHAPTER I. 

' Ocean, thou dreadful and tumultuous home 
Of dangers, at eternal war with man ' 
Death's capitol, where most he dominates, 
With all his chosen terrors frowning round, 
Wide opening and loud roaring still for more, 
Too faithful mirror !" 



— Anonymous. 



" Let ignorance with envy chat ; 

In spite of both, thou fame shalt win." 

— Herrick, to Ben Jonson. 

His was the gifted eye, which grace still touched 

As if with second nature ; and his dreams. 

His childish dreams, were lit by hues of heaven — 

Those which make Genius." 

— Miss Landon. 



Our fortunes meet us ; 

... if good, the act of heav'n." 



— Drvden. 



In spite of occasional theories of Greek or Roman philosophers 
as to the shape of the earth, and of dim traditions of savage tribes 
almost shapeless and objectless, the old world and the new were 
equally ignorant of the existence of each other, from remotest 
times down to October 12th, 1492, when Christopher Columbus, 
with undaunted courage, consummate skill and action, realizing 
his own theories and verifying traditions and prophesies, electri- 
fied the one by his discovery of the other. Now at last mankind 
saw their own planet, a beautiful sphere bathed in celestial light. 

When the admiral and his companions approached and anchored 
their three vessels at the islands of the Western Hemisphere, 
which they had just discovered, the gdntle natives either fell 
upon the earth on their faces and worshipped the new-comers 
as divine beings, or, frightened and dismayed at so sudden and 
marvellous an apparition, fled to the woods in terror. When 



14 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

they saw these noble and resplendent strangers land with pomp 
and pageantr_y, and, displaying their golden banner, take formal 
possession of the country, a ceremony then little understood by 
the nati%x^s, they exclaimed : " Turey, Turey !" " You are from 
Heaven !" The fierce Caribs of the Caribbean Islands, and later 
the warlike tribes of the mainland along the coast of Honduras, 
marshalled their naked warriors in battle array to repel the 
celestial visitors. 

On the other hand, when Columbus broached his theories and 
presented his propositions and plans, for the discovery of new 
countries in the western ocean, to the civihzed world, and de- 
manded ships to sail westward across the Atlantic in search of 
the promised land, his suit was rejected by one sovereign after 
another ; he traveled from country to country, and from one 
royal court to another, to plead the cause of a new world, before 
unwilling and incredulous nations. He was derided as a need}^ 
adventurer and visionar}- theorist, and as he passed through the 
streets, which afterward he traversed in triumph, even the little 
children mocked and scoffed at him, and they placed their hands 
upon their foreheads to indicate, as they had been taught, that 
he was a madman. The august Council of Salamanca, composed 
of the most learned men of the age, to whom the propositions of 
Columbus were referred for investigation by Ferdinand and 
Isabella, the Spanish sovereigns, and before whom he elaborately 
and ably explained them and answered all objections, reported 
to their Majesties that the plan " was vain and impossible, and 
that it did not become such great princes to engage in an enter- 
prise of the kind on such weak grounds as had been advanced."* 

Whatever may have been the learning and the intelligence of 
the ancients in relation to the shape, size, extent, and geography 
of the earth, and as to the existence of other continents, all these 
had been swept aside and buried in oblivion by the great social, 
political, and moral cataclysm caused by the terrific incursions 
of the northern barbarians into Southern Europe. It is certain 
that, at the time Christopher Columbus sprang the subject upon 
the world toward the close of the fifteenth century, Europe and 
Asia knew nothing of the existence of western islands and con- 
tinents in the Atlantic, and wholly rejected every such theor}'. 



* Irving's " Life of Columbus," vol. i,, p. loo. 



ON COLUMBUS. I5 

The Atlantic Ocean, vast, unexplored, and stormy, was an ob- 
ject of fear and terror to all men ; even the learned and experi- 
enced navigators regarded it with awe and aversion. It was 
called the Sea of Darkness,* and the belief was universal, except 
possibly with a very few learned ones, that it was unnavigable 
and impassable. It was regarded by the most experienced navi- 
gators as a boundless and tempestuous expanse, without opposite 
shores, and they regarded the known world as already reaching 
to the limits of the habitable or passable globe. It was univer- 
sally believed that our planet was embraced by a raging and 
torrid zone, subject to the unbridled, fiery, and all-consuming 
flames of the sun, and that this zone formed a region of impassa- 
ble and impassive heat, and that the two hemispheres were for- 
ever and irretrievably separated from each other by it ; the 
waters of the torrid zone, under the vertical and raging fires of 
the sun, were a caldron of boiling and seething billows, and 
that sea and land were scorched to a heat in which animal and 
vegetable life x:ould not be maintained. f Iceland was regarded 
as the ultima Thulc, the utmost boundary of the earth \X and the 
learned Gravier, in our own times, writes, while commenting on 
the space lying beyond Thule or Iceland, in passages which I 
translate from his profound work, thus : " According to Strabo, 
who quotes Polybius, Pythias should have said that beyond 
Thule there is no longer to be met nor earth, nor sea, nor air, 
but a concretion of these different elements, similar to the inarine 
pubnonatc, which holds in suspension and reunites by one com- 
mon bond the earth, the sea, and the air, and no longer allows 
man to walk or to navigate. 

" The learned have much discussed this viarine pubnonatc, and 
have successively transferred it into smoke thrown out by Mount 
Hekla, into polar seas, into pumice-stones proceeding from vol- 
canoes, which seem to exist toward the seventy-fifth degree. 

" A seaman, who had seen only the beautiful blue sky of the 
Mediterranean, who partook more or less of the ideas prevailing 
in his time upon the cosmography of the hyperborean regions, 
could believe that he had reached the extreme border of the 



* De Costa, " Pre-Columbian Discovery of America," xii. 
f " Historia Espan. Mariana," lib. ii., cap. 22. 
X Strabo, "Polybius." 



l6 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

globe accessible to man, and compare the atmosphere of these 
regions to the marine pulnionate.'' * 

Even the famous " Dialogues of Plato," preserved in their 
temple by the Egyptian priests, and now given to the modern 
world in all their details, represent the Atlantic Ocean as having 
been in ancient times navigable, but in consequence of the great 
cataclysm, which destroyed the island or continent of Atlantis, 
it had now become impassable by reason of the vast quantities of 
slimy mud resulting from the submerging of those immense 
regions of the earth. " But afterward there occurred violent 
earthquakes and floods, and in a single day and night of rain all 
your warlike men in a body sunk into the earth, and the island 
of Atlantis in like manner disappeared, and was sunk beneath the 
sea ; and that is the reason why the sea in those parts is impass- 
able and impenetrable, because there is such a quantity of shallow 
mud in the way ; and this was caused by the subsidence of the 
island." f 

Considering the age of the human race and the duration of 
man's dominion on the earth, we can but be surprised at the slow 
growth of the science of geography, and how little was known 
in the time of Columbus concerning the planet upon which we 
live. While several of the wisest men of the ancients entertained 
most intelligent views of the shape and size of the earth, still 
after the overthrow of the Roman Empire scarcely more was 
known of the earth than the countries immediately around the 
Mediterranean Sea, and while scarcely anything was known of 
Scandinavia, Russia, and Northern Germany, the vaguest and 
most erroneous notions prevailed as to them and other lands 
known only by name ; and almost nothing was known of Siberia, 
Tartary, China, Japan, and of the great Asiatic archipelago. 
There was a strong tendency, even among the learned, to ex- 
aggerate the proportions of Europe and to underrate those of 
Asia. Arhong the egregious errors then prevailing were the 
belief that the Ganges flowed entirely to the east and emptied 
into the eastern ocean, while the Caspian Sea was believed to be 
the northern limit of the earth ; and what we know now to be 



* "Decouverte de rAmerique paries Normans au X* Sifecle," xvii. 
f Plato's •' Dialogues," ii., 517. " Timjeus," as given in Donnelly's "Atlantis," 
p. II. 



ON COLUMBUS. 1 7 

Siberia and Tartary were regarded as an inland sea connecting 
the Caspian with the eastern ocean. The Mediterranean borders 
of Africa alone were known, and all south of these was regarded 
as the torrid zone and so ravaged with the solar flames as to be 
uninhabitable. This view of the torrid zone toward the equator 
prevailed even to the time of Columbus, and was only dissipated 
by the bold explorations of the Portuguese along the west coast 
of Africa, and by Columbus himself, who visited the equator. 
Strabo, in the first quarter of the first Christian century, while 
rejecting the ancient belief that Africa was circumnavigable, 
intelligently adhered to the belief in an encircling ocean ; and 
Pomponius Mela, the earliest of the Roman geographers, in the 
time of the Emperor Claudius, divided the world into two hemi- 
spheres : the Northern, which embraced all of the known world, 
such as Europe north of. the Mediterranean and west of the 
Tanais ; Africa, south of the Mediterranean and west of the Nile, 
and such parts of Western Asia as were known ; the Southern 
Hemisphere embraced all the rest of the earth, which was un- 
known. But in the middle of the second century, when the 
Roman Empire had acquired its greatest extent and all its prov- 
inces were known and surveyed and their census taken, the great 
geographer Ptolemy, who had abandoned the more intelligent 
notion of Strabo as to a circumambient ocean, contented himself 
with the theory of a vast expanse of unknown land ; but while 
he added much to mankind's knowledge of the geography of the 
earth, including slight glimpses at the Baltic countries, Russia, 
Scythia, and even China and India, still Africa was delineated as 
extending indefinitely to the south, and was continued around so 
as to join Eastern Asia, thus surrounding the Indian Ocean by 
land, like the Mediterranean. It is true and wonderful that in 
the ninth century the Northmen from Iceland discovered and 
colonized Greenland, and visited lands now known by. us to be 
the shores and islands of our own Atlantic coast ; but these bold 
adventurers never understood the geographical bearing of their 
own discoveries, nor that they had entered a western hemi- 
sphere, nor was the knowledge of these discoveries given to man- 
kind until recent years. Such were the circumstances and re- 
sults as to deprive their achievements of the character of discov- 
eries. Some have supposed that Columbus may have heard of 
the expeditions of the Northmen during his visit to Iceland in 



1 8 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

1477 ; but his son, Fernando, who recorded the sources of infor- 
mation upon which his father acted, fails to mention this as 
among the varied and numerous data possessed by the great 
admiral ; for the latter left, among his papers, the most ample 
memoranda of all the information he had ever obtained, bearing 
upon his theor}^ of the existence of western islands and continents 
across the Atlantic. 

But it was the progress of European advances into Eastern 
Asia that contributed the most important results to the progress 
of geography, and it was this growth of European knowledge of 
the vast extent of Asia in that direction that so greatly influenced 
the work of Christopher Columbus, who to the last aimed at dis- 
covering a Northwest passage to Asia, and lived and died in the 
belief, in which all the world united with him then, that the 
islands and lands he had discovered in the Western Hemisphere 
were parts of Asia. Prior to the thirteenth century Asia was 
but little known to Europeans, but in that century the Popes 
sent missionaries into the distant regions of that continent. Thus 
in 1246 we behold Pope Innocent IV. sending the celebrated 
Father John de Piano Carpini with Franciscan monks to convert 
the subjects of the Tartar Emperor, Kayuk Khan, and these zeal- 
ous missionaries extended their apostolate to the far regions of 
Thibet. But even prior to this, toward the middle of the twelfth 
century, startling rumors were current in Europe that there 
reigned in Asia a powerful Christian emperor, Prester John, 
who had already broken the power of the Mussulmans, and was 
ready to come to the assistance of the Crusaders. Pope Alex- 
ander III. determined to lose no time in opening communication 
with this famous yet shadowy chief, who was at once both king 
and pontiff, and on September 27th, 11 77, he sent a special em- 
bassy, headed by the heroic physician, Philip, bearing a letter 
and proposal for a union of this Asiatic part of the Church wath 
the rest of Christendom. Although Dr. Philip never returned 
with tidings of Prester John, this effort was followed by the mis- 
sions under Pope Innocent IV., in the thirteenth century, and 
again in 1253, when St. Louis, King of France, sent Rubruiquis 
and other missionaries in search of Prester John, and these pene- 
trated into Asia far beyond all other European expeditions. In 
1 27 1 the celebrated Venetian discoverer and geographer, Marco 
Polo, went forth with his father and uncle to reach the far-famed 



ON COLUMBUS. 1 9 

court of the Tartar conqueror of China, the celebrated Kublai 
Khan. The}^ traveled three years, reached the city of Yehking, 
wliich was near the present site of Peking, and Marco Polo, after 
a residence of twenty-four years in Asia, returned to Europe and 
published his great work on his travels, thus revealing to Europe 
the existence of the vast Empire of Japan and of many of the islands 
of the East Indies. Marco Polo was a favorite author of Colum- 
bus, who was confident that in his voyages to the Western Con- 
tinent he would reach the countries visited and described by that 
great traveler and writer, and that he was destined to reach the 
court of the Grand Khan of Tartary, and effect the conversion 
of that famous potentate and the union of the Grand Khan and his 
vast empire, teeming wdth countless populations, with the Chris- 
tian Church, a result which had been sought in vain for centuries 
by popes, kings, and apostles. On his first voyage Columbus 
actually carried letters from Ferdinand and Isabella addressed 
to, and which he expected to deliver in person to, the Grand 
Khan. The most enlightened view reached by the advanced 
cosmographers and scholars of the fifteenth century, by such 
men as Columbus and Dr. Toscanelli, the learned and venerable 
cosmographer of Florence, the friend and correspondent of the 
admiral, was that the eastern shores, countries, and islands of 
Asia lay over against the western coasts of Europe and Africa, 
and that they would be reached by sailing across the Atlantic, 
the Sea of Darkness, in a direct western course. 

It was during the lifetime of Columbus, and before his great 
discovery, that the most gigantic strides were made in the science 
of navigation and in the knowledge of the earth's geography. 
We shall shoAV hereafter, in this book, the brilliant and useful 
part he took in these enlightened and practical advances — a part 
w'hich culminated in the greatest achievement in the history of 
our race, the discovery of America. But, in order to accomplish 
this great boon for mankind, he had to contradict the opinions, 
the traditions, and the honest convictions of men and of the 
world. The chaos spoken of by Washington Irving, in the fol- 
lowing passage of his " Life of Columbus," is similar to the 
conglomerate of earth, air, sea, and smoke spoken of by Gravier 
under the name of marine pubnonate, as expressing the absurd 
views entertained concerning the Atlantic, even by the most 
learned in the time of Columbus. " Certain it is," says Mr. 



20 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

Irving, " that at the beginning of the fifteenth century, when the 
most intelligent minds were seeking in every direction for the 
scattered lights of geographical knowledge, a profound igno- 
rance prevailed among the learned as to the western regions of 
the Atlantic ; its vast waters were regarded with awe and won- 
der, seeming to bound the world as with a chaos, into which 
conjecture could not penetrate and enterprise feared to venture. " 
In pressing his great suit and pleading the cause of a new world, 
Columbus encountered all the supposed learning of past ages, as 
well that of his contemporaries, to which, I think, Mr. Justin 
Winsor attaches an exaggerated importance.* Rejected by the 
Council of Salamanca, as it had previously been pronounced by 
the most learned men at the court of Portugal, as an " enter- 
prise of a wild, chimerical nature," the admiral, toward the close 
of the fifteenth century, had also to meet and refute the argu- 
ments mistakenl)^ based upon passages from the Bible, and also 
such as could be found or deduced from the writings of the 
Christian Fathers. Lactantius, one of the earliest and most 
learned of the Fathers of the Church, had rejected and ridiculed 
the theory of the Antipodes, which had been broached by the 
ancients, in the following remarkable and sarcastic passage : " Is 
there an}^ one so foolish as to believe that there are antipodes 
with their feet opposite to ours — people who walk with their 
heels upward and their heads hanging down ? that there is a 
part of the world in which all things are topsy-turvy ; where the 
trees grow with their branches downward, and where it rains, 
hails, and snows upward ? The idea of the roundness of the 
earth was the cause of inventing this fable of the antipodes, with 
their heels in the air ; for these philosophers, having once erred, 
go on in their absurdities, defending one with another." f And 
St. Augustine wholly rejected the fact of the antipodes " as in- 
compatible with the historical foundations of the earth." Having 
no acquaintance with the geography of the polar regions and the 
lay of the land of Northern Asia, as we know them, he regarded 
the theory of the antipodes as contradicting the scriptural ac- 
count of the unity of the human race ; and the races of men in- 



* " Christopher Columbus, and how he Received and Transmitted the Spirit of 
Discovery," by Justin Winsor, iSgi. 

f Firmiani Lactantiae, " Divin. Instit.," lib. iii., cap. xxiv. 



ON COLUMBUS. 2 1 

habiting the opposite side of the earth could not have been de- 
scended irom Adam and Eve, since there was no land passage 
for them to take from the cradle lands of the old world, " and it 
was impossible for them to have passed the intervening ocean." * 
The genius, the learning, and the convictions of Columbus 
arose above opposition, prejudice, and tradition. His knowl- 
edge of the subject, acquired by long years of study, his cogent, 
clear, and unanswerable reasoning, his bold and confident pledge 
to the world that, if afforded the opportunity and provided with 
ships, he would discover a new world — all point him out for all 
time, as it did to the intelligent minds of Ferdinand and Isabella, 
as the man that was fitted, if not destined, to achieve this splendid 
and unparalleled conquest. He believed in his own destiny, and 
being a man of profoundly religious character, he failed not to 
find in the sacred writings texts which pointed to him as the man 
of destiny — the man that was to lead the way, b}' his grand dis- 
coveries and achievements, to extending the realms of Christen- 
dom to vast and unknown countries. He sustained his startling 
propositions with scientific knowledge and facts drawn from the 
very nature, size, shape, and from the known geography of the 
earth, from the reports of experienced and veteran navigators, 
and the writings of the learned in all ages. While there were 
errors of detail in the theories and anticipations of the great dis- 
coverer, such as his expectation and belief that Asia was the land 
he would find, and his miscalculation of the size of the earth, 
arising out of the then current imperfect geographical knowledge 
of the world, his main proposition was correct, and he made it 
good by the unanswerable argument of success. All the learned 
men, scientists and scholars of his day, with few exceptions, de- 
rided the startling conceptions of Columbus. After the great 
discovery had been accomplished they also adopted the mistaken 
hypothesis that the countries discovered were parts of Asia. 
But the)'- now rejoiced that their lives were cast in an age of such 
brilliant achievements ; that they had been permitted to witness 
the consummation of so grand an event, and to welcome discov- 
eries pregnant with the fate of empires and of worlds. I cannot 
more appropriate!}' close this introductory chapter than by quot- 
ing the language of the historian, William H. Prescott, who. 



St. Augustine, " De Civitate Dei," lib. .\vi., c. ix. 



22 OLD AND NEW LICIITS 

after describing the magnificent and royal reception accorded to 
Columbus on his return from discovering the new world, says : 
" It was, indeed, the proudest moment in the life of Columbus. 
He had fully established the truth of his long-contested theory, 
in the face of argument, sophistry, sneers, scepticism, and con- 
tempt. He had achieved this not by chance, but by calculation, 
supported through the most adverse circumstances by consum- 
mate conduct. The honors paid him, which had hitherto been 
reserved only for rank or fortune or military success, purchased 
by the blood and tears of thousands, were, in his case, an homage 
to intellectual power, successfully exerted in behalf of the noblest 
interests of humanity." * 

It seems almost impossible to study the life and character of 
Columbus without becoming impressed with an indulgent if not 
sympathetic view of the idea which the man himself entertained, 
that he was foreordained to become the discoverer of the new 
world, and to yield our admiration to the thought Many learned, 
grave, and practical authors, who have written on the subject, 
appear to become unconsciously imbued with the idea of destiny, 
which Columbus entertained of himself. The good but perhaps 
over-zealous Count de Lorgues, in one of his spirited works on 
Columbus, boldly asserts that ' ' he who does not believe in the 
supernatural cannot comprehend Columbus ;" and our own Ban- 
croft, seemingly yielding to the same inspiration, says : " Poets 
of ancient and of more recent times had foretold that empires 
beyond the ocean would one day be revealed to the daring navi- 
gator. The genial country of Dante and Buonarotti gave birth 
to Christopher Columbus, by whom these lessons were so re- 
ceived and weighed that he gained the glory of fulfilling the 
prophecy. "t And again he speaks of Columbus as one " who 
was still the promiser of kingdoms, holding firmly in his grasp 
' the keys of the ocean sea,' claiming, as it were from Heaven, 
the Indies as his own, and ' dividing them as he pleased.' It 
was then that through the prior of the convent his hol}^ confi- 
dence found support in Isabella, the Queen of Castile, and in 
1492, with three poor vessels, of which the largest only was 
decked, embarking from Palos for the Indies by way of the west. 



* Prescott's " Ferdinand and Isabella," vol. ii., p. 164. 
f " History of the United States," 1883, vol. i., p. 7. 



ON COLUMBUS. 23 

Columbus gave a new world to Castile and Leon, * the like of 
which was never done by any man in ancient or in later times.' " * 
And again, speaking of the predictions by ancient poets of the 
discovery of America, and of the belief prevalent for ages " that 
vast inhabited regions lay unexplored in the west," he says : 
But Columbus deserved the undivided glory of having realized 
that belief, "t 



* Bancroft's " History of the United States," vol. 1., p. 9. 
f lb., 1854, vol. i., p. 6. 



CHAPTER II. 

" How young Columbus seem'd to rove, 
Yet present in his natal grove, 
Now watching high on mountain cornice, 
And steering, now, from purple cove ; 

" Now pacing mute by ocean's rim, 
Till in a narrow street and dim, 
I stay'd the wheels at Cogoleto, 
And drank, and loyally drank, to him." 



— Tennyson, 



" The dark blue jacket that enfolds the sailor's manly breast 
Bears more of real honor than the star and ermine vest ; 
The tithe of folly in his head may wake the landsman's mirth. 
But Nature proudly owns him as her child of sterling worth." 

— Miss Eliza Cook. 

The time and the place of the birth of Christopher Columbus 
have been, among- rival cities and historians, the subjects of 
warm controversy and of consequent careful research. While 
the day of his birth has never been ascertained, and there exists 
a difference of many years between the earliest and the latest years 
assigned for his nativity, it is now considered by the far greater 
number of authentic historians that he was born in the year 
1446, or possibly early in 1447.* 

Still greater has been the diversity of claims as to his birth- 
place, and far more earnest the controversy. While Genoa is 
the foremost and most successful claimant, even the Genoese 
have warmly disputed among themselves for the honor, and 
whether Columbus was born in the city, or in some village or 



* Mr. Irving gives 1435 as the year of his birth (" Life of Columbus," vol. !., 
p. 22). The Count de Lorgues adopts the same year (Dr. Barry's translation of the 
Count de Lorgues' " Life of Columbus," p. 48). Francesco Tarducci, a learned Ital- 
ian author, prefers the year 1436, on the authority of Andres Bernaldez, known in his- 
tory as the Curate of Los Palacios (Mr. Brownson's translation of Tarducci's " Life of 
Columbus," vol. i., p. 10). Various authors give different years for the birth of Colum- 
bus, and the time covered by these years varies from 1430 to i456,_ I think, after 
consulting many opinions and authorities, and considering the events and course of 
the admiral's life, the year of his birth was most probably 1446. 



ON COLUMBUS. 2$ 

other part of the Genoese territory, was long and is possibly 
now a question that has provoked considerable rivalry and local 
research. Savona, Finale, and Oneglia, western coastwise towns 
of Liguria, and Cogoleto (the place where Lord Tennyson drank 
his health in verse), Boggiasco, and several other towns and 
villages have claimed the great admiral as their native towns- 
man. While Cogoleto and Savona have successively been ad- 
judged the victors, and finallv Genoa carried off the palm, other 
places, such as Placentia, and especially Piedmont, have laid 
claim to the distinction, and the controversy is still warmly and 
stoutly maintained. Yet the victory is now almost universally 
acknowledged to be with Genoa as the birthplace of Columbus.* 
This contest for the honor of having given birth to this illustrious 
man was never raised until after his death, for during his lifetime 
there have been few men of any distinction who have borne more 
disappointment, ridicule, ingratitude, and poverty than he. His 
fate in this respect has been similar to that of another gifted and 
famous personage, the earliest and greatest of Grecian poets, 
Homer ; for of the latter it has been said that 

" Seven cities claim great Homer dead, 
Through which the living Homer begged his bread." 

Columbus was the oldest of the four children of Dominico 
Colombo and Susannah Fontanarossa ; three of them were sons, 
Bartholomew and Giacomo (written Diego in Spanish and James 
in English) being his brothers, and of these our histor}' will make 
frequent mention ; but of his only sister, who was married to an 
obscure Genoese named Giacomo Bavarello, we know nothing 
further. Since his death efforts have been made to deduce the 
descent of Columbus from ancient and ennobled sources, and 
several illustrious and noble families have claimed him as of their 



* At first the claimants for the honor of having been the birthplace of Columbus 
were six ; but in after years, as his fame increased, the number increased to fif- 
teen — viz., Genoa, Quinto, with Terrarossa in the valley of Fontanabuona, Boglias- 
co, Chiavari, another Terrarossa, Cogoleto or Cugureo, Albissola, Savona, Oneglia, 
with a third Terrarossa— all places or lands on the Ligurian coast ; and beyond the 
Apennines, Casseria, Cuccaro ; in the Montferrat, Pradella, near Piacenza ; the city of 
Calvi, in Corsica ; a place in France ; even England. (Tarducci.) 

Hon. Charles P. Daly, in an interesting pamphlet, " Have we a Portrait of Colum- 
bus ?" states that the places claiming to be the birthplace of Columbus number 
twenty-three. From the same source we learn that there arc about five hundred 
alleged portraits of Columbus. 



26 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

lineage. However this ma}' be, his descendants have now 
sensibly preferred to regard the discoverer of America as the 
founder of their familv, and the most illustrious and proudest 
families of Spain have courted their alliance. It is certain, how- 
ever, that at the birth and during the youth of Columbus his 
family was in obscure and poor circumstances ; his father fol- 
lowed the occupation of a weaver of woollen goods, and the 
illustrious son assisted his parent in this humble but honest 
calling. 

There is also a deep significance in the name of the great 
admiral, which in his native language was rendered Colombo 
and in Latin Columbus, which signifies a dove, and his son and 
historian, Fernando, regards this as marvellously mysterious and 
typical, as the very name dove was a token of his having been 
foreordained to " carry the olive branch and oil of baptism over 
the ocean, like Noah's dove, to denote the peace and union of 
the heathen people with the Church, after they had been shut 
up in the ark of darkness and confusion." * There is a further 
and greater significance in the name of' Christopher, which means 
the Christ-bearer in Latin, in token of his zeal for the conversion 
of the Indians to Christianity, and of his being the first Christian 
to salute the new world, to display the cross to its inhabitants, 
and to carry missionaries for their instruction and conversion. 

Christopher Columbus was baptized at the Dominican Church 
of St. Stephen, at Genoa. Of his early boyhood we know but 
little. His father, from his scanty resources, found the means to 
send his oldest son, at the age of ten years, to the University of 
Pavia, a fact, as already mentioned, held in dispute, but which 
the stronger arguments have well sustained ; and here the bright 
and gifted youth availed himself, to the best advantage, of the 
short collegiate course of two years, in acquiring some knowl- 
edge of Latin, geometry, geography, astronomy, and naviga- 
tion.! The instruction he thus received gave him but a faint 
glimpse at sciences which, however, in after life, his energy, his 
intellectual powers, his ambition, and his indomitable persever- 



* Fernando Colon, " Historia del Almirante," chaps, i and 2, 

f The extent of the admiral's education is a much-disputed question. The Univer- 
sity of Pavia claims him as an alumnus ; has erected a monument there to commemo- 
rate that fact ; and, in recognition of it, a small portion of his relics has been sent 
there. 



ON COLUMBUS. 



'^J 



ance enabled him to acquire and apply to a degree that made 
him quite early one of the foremost men of his age, and a leader 
of thought, study, and action in the most important events in the 
history of mankind.* At the age of twelve years, such was his 
poverty, he returned to the humble suburban home of his father, 
and assisted him at his business as weaver of woollen goods. It 
was greatly to the credit of the young Columbus that he steadily 
assisted his father in his useful avocation, but his brief yet studi- 
ous education had inspired him with loftier and more important 
aspirations. His family was, as is alleged, of honorable descent, 
and he himself had acquired no inconsiderable knowledge of the 
practical sciences, which he wished to make the stepping-stones 
to his own and his family's advancement, and " in which," says 
Prescott, " he subsequently excelled." It is claimed by his son, 
Fernando, that he spent two years in study at the University of 
Pavia, and Las Casas repeats the statement on the authority of 
Fernando ; but the fact is strenuously disputed by many astute 
historians and critics, f while others have conceded the fact.:}: 

He was a youth of uncommon promise. His native city of 
Genoa was a centre of commercial enterprise and of maritime 
adventure ; but as it was surrounded by lofty and rugged moun- 
tains, and looked only toward the sea, it afforded no inland 
field for youthful adventure in the case of so gifted a boy. The 
Mediterranean Sea was the field for brave exploits and bold ad- 
ventures. Commerce and war in those days went hand in hand 
together ; piracy still prevailed, and was almost legalized, or at 
least connived at and openly practised. A state of war was the 



* The following passage from the Dublin Rcvie^v for April, 1893, will prove inter- 
esting as suggesting new or divergent views in regard to events in the life of Colum- 
bus which have been much discussed. It is a notice of Mariana Monteno's " Chris- 
topher Columbus." " It records the chief events in the life of the great discoverer, as 
we have been accustomed to understand them, and without reference to modern criti- 
cism — e.g., it states that Columbus was educated at Pavia ; Father Knight says 
Padua, and Markham maintains that he was not educated at either university, but at 
the weaver's school at Genoa. Again, in the matter of the marriage of Columbus, the 
authoress follows the older accounts, whereas some modern writers maintain that the 
first wife of Columbus was not Dona Perestrello, daughter of the Governor of Porto 
Santo, but another lady by the name of Moniz" (p. 487). We will show that she bore 
both names. 

f Tarducci's " Life of Columbus," H. F. Brownson's translation, vol. i., p. 13. 

X Winsor's " Columbus," etc., p. 79. 



2$ OLD AND NEW LIGHTS * 

normal condition of the sea-bordering countries. What exploits 
could be more fascinating to a gallant and noble youth, than 
encounters with these reckless marauders and highwaymen of 
the sea ! 

Even religion entered into this strange and interesting belliger- 
ency, for the Mediterranean was then infested by Mohammedan 
corsairs. The expeditions of Christian merchantmen always went 
to sea with warlike armaments suited for encounters with these 
enemies of the cross, and the mariners were accoutred with per- 
sonal arms for hand-to-hand encounters with these desperate fol- 
lowers of the Prophet. 

The Columbuses, though perhaps of various stocks, were, in 
fact, mostly a seafaring family. At this time two Colombos 
were famous for maritime and naval exploits : the rugged and 
hardy old admiral, who is represented to have been a bold and 
adventurous seaman and warrior, ready to encounter either the 
enemies of his country or of his faith, and fond of fighting on the 
sea as a vocation ; and his nephew, Colombo the younger, who 
was distinguished in the same field of perilous adventure. Chris- 
topher Columbus is said to have served under both of them. 
Such was the reputed school which was to prepare a future 
admiral, if much credence is to be given to uncertain details and 
romantic narrative, for his subsequent career of unparalleled dis- 
covery and brilliant achievement. 

At an early age Columbus, influenced by the prevailing and 
growing tastes of the age, manifested a decided inclination for a 
seafaring and maritime life. His earliest studies, and especially 
his two years of university training, were directed and shaped 
so as to promote and cultivate this inclination and prepare him 
for the sea, for in those days the only course that led to distinc- 
tion and success was one of maritime adventure. The sciences 
of geometry, geography, astronomy, and navigation, with which 
he followed up his earlier and more elementary studies, were 
of sufficient depth to enable him in after life to become distin- 
guished in those sciences, and also to make a skilful practical use 
and application of them. The humbler yet important study of 
drawing was kindred to these, and possessed in his case a special 
significance, as it enabled him to become a map-maker of unusual 
skill, and thus earn a scanty subsistence during the long 3'ears oi 
disappointment and rebuff he spent in waiting upon the courts of 



ON COLUMBUS. 29 

Portugal and Spain ; and this assisted him in those cosmographi- 
cal studies which formed a prominent part in the great work of 
self-edu< ation which he so eminently accomplished. These 
studies were enthusiastically followed by him from his youth, 
and such was his regard for them that, after he had achieved his 
great discover}^ he claimed, and even so stated in one of his 
letters from the West Indies to the Spanish sovereigns, that 
his youthful and ardent love for nautical and other kindred 
studies, at so early an age, had marked him out from his birth as 
the one foreordained by Heaven to reveal to mankind the exist- 
ence of the Western Continent, and the true shape and size of the 
earth. Inspired by the prevailing tastes of the age, and impelled 
by his own ardent enthusiasm, Columbus became a sailor at the 
age of fourteen. 

Of the early voyages of Columbus we have some accounts, 
which, however, are too meagre and confused to satisfy our cu- 
riosity as to the first practical and earnest endeavors of our young 
seaman in a career, which afterward gave fame and splendor to 
his name, or to gratify our desires to know and study the details 
of those experiences and conflicts with men and floods, which 
formed his more advanced education for the career of usefulness 
and renown he was destined to accomplish. The famous ad- 
mirals of that day were claimed by the admiral's son, Fernando, 
as relatives and as instructors of his father ; but more reliable 
accounts show them to have been Frenchmen. Yet even the 
admiral himself in after life said he was not the first admiral of 
his family. But while the admiral no doubt served under 
Colombo the younger, because Genoa and France were then in 
alliance, many authors suppose that he served also under the 
elder Colombo, who was then prominent in the maritime an- 
nals of that day as a brave and hardy commander, who sometimes 
led a squadron of his own and at others commanded in naval ex- 
peditions of the Genoese Government, from which he is sup- 
posed, though doubtfully, to have held an admiral's commission. 
The Mediterranean in those days was the scene of tumultuous 
adventure and perilous encounter. A voyage in those days, 
even in the should-be peaceful prosecution of trade, was hazard- 
ous and daring, for the sea was then frequented by roving adven- 
turers and reckless freebooters of every kind. The commerce 
of Europe, Asia, and Africa was subject to constant depredations 



30 OIJ) AND NEW LIGHTS 

of pirates, and the ships of commerce had to protect themselves 
by force of arms and to fight their way. Thus they resembled 
Avarlike expeditions rather than amicable ships of trade. The 
navies of rival Italian States then openly depredated on the com- 
merce of their neighbors. The States bordering on the Mediter- 
ranean made this the seat of their naval wars, which were mostly 
piratical. Even private noblemen and wealth}' families main- 
tained a sort of feudal sovereignty over their retainers, and not 
only supported military equipments on land, but also miniature 
navies at sea. 

The rude and reckless expeditions and ships of the Catalonians 
also constituted a bold feature in the naval life of the times, and 
even private individuals fitted out ships of their own, with which 
they either accepted service from some belligerent or openly 
roved over the waters of the Mediterranean as pirates in search of 
plunder. But one of the most startling ai^d interesting features 
in these commingling and disordered scenes was the Moham- 
medan expeditions by sea, which sought encounter with Chris- 
tian navies or plundered the merchant ships of the Christian 
countries. To go in pursuit of these godless depredators and 
assailants of everything that was Christian was deemed an act 
of religious merit, and blessings and spiritual privileges accom- 
panied the pious and zealous Christian sailors, Avho embarked in 
such holy warfare. It was amid such scenes and exploits that 
the character and prowess of Columbus were moulded and 
trained. 

Of one of the early services of Columbus, supposed by some 
to have -been performed under the old Admiral Colombo, but 
more probably under the younger, we have interesting but 
doubtful accounts. In 1459 John of Anjou, Duke of Calabria, 
equipped a naval expedition, which sailed from Genoa against 
the city of Naples, its purpose being to reconquer that kingdom 
for the duke's father, King Reinier, Count of Provence ; and as 
Genoa became his ally, the old Admiral Colombo joined the 
expedition, and young Christopher Columbus, it is claimed, 
served under him with distinguished gallantry and courage. 
The expedition was unsuccessful, indeed, unfortunate, as few of 
the ships were left ; but it was of great service in educating and 
inuring to severe service and tests of character the future dis- 
coverer. He relates of himself an incident which occurred dur- 



ON COLUMBUS. 3 I 

ing this naval expedition, and which is worthy of reproduction, 
as it throws light upon characteristic expedients which he re- 
sorted to in his first voyage of discovery to America, man}- 
years later. King Reinier gave orders to our young captain, 
who commanded a vessel in the expedition, to sail to Tunis and 
capture the galley Fernandina, which was represented to be 
there alone and without protection, Columbus gladly accepted 
the task, but when his vessel reached the island of St. Pedro, in 
Sardinia, he learned, to the consternation of his crew, that the 
Fernandina had for consorts two ships and a carrack, whereupon 
the frightened crew refused to proceed to the encounter, though 
their gallant young captain only yearned for the attack ; and 
they insisted on returning to Marseilles for reinforcements of 
ships and men. Columbus, who was powerless to compel them, 
seemed to acquiesce in their determination, and spreading all 
sail, orders were issued accordingly ; but Columbus secretly 
altered the point of the compass, and next morning, instead of 
finding themselves sailing for Marseilles, the crew found that he 
had piloted the ship within the Cape of Carthagena. When we 
come to relate the history of Columbus's first voyage across the 
Atlantic, we will have occasion to show how, by the stratagem 
of altering the reckoning of the log-book, he deluded his rebel- 
lious crew as to the distance they had sailed from Palos, and 
thus secured a continuance of that momentous voyage until the 
sight of land soon gladdened the hearts of all. 

For several years Columbus, according to current accounts, 
more or less unreliable, continued to follow the sea, and to render 
gallant and intrepid service either in the employ of the Genoese 
Government or as captain of a vessel imder the leadership of 
the renowned old captains of his name, uncle and nephew, the 
latter of whom also gained great notoriety as a reckless and 
daring corsair, whose name was a terror to the Mohammedans ; 
and it is said that disobedient children in Moorish families were 
frightened by their mothers into subjection and obedience by 
the very mention of the name of Colombo. After Christopher 
Columbus became famous as the discoverer of America, and his- 
torians ransacked every annal and reports of the past for inci- 
dents of his life during this earlier and obscurer portion of his 
active career, some of the reckless and even questionable deeds 
of the elder and of the younger Colombos were, in the confusion 



32 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

of the annals, attributed to Christopher Cokimbus. Great ob- 
scurity and confusion prevail in the accounts of events and dates 
on the career and life of Columbus from 1450 to 1470, the period 
of his seafaring life. We come now to his advent and residence 
in Portugal, upon which we hope to throw some new light. 

The circumstances or motives which led Columbus to go to 
Portugal have been variously assigned. Fernando, his second 
son, who wrote the first history of his father, with evident and 
recurring pleasure taken in linking his name with the adventures 
at sea of the two French commanders, Colombo, relates that 
shipwreck off the coast of Portugal was the first cause of his 
father's advent to Lisbon. This account would attribute to 
chance one of the most important steps ever taken by Columbus, 
but it is not well authenticated, and other more probable and 
reasonable causes for his going to Lisbon are not wanting. Co- 
lumbus acted with a purpose in this, as in the other great events 
of his life. 

The most usual time assigned for the advent of Christopher 
Columbus to Portugal is 1470. It certainly was between 1470 
and 1474. If we take the former year, 1470, he evidently did 
not then make Lisbon or the Portuguese possessions his per- 
manent home, since we find him at Savona with his father in 1472 
and 1473. Documents published by Harrisse, in his ' ' Chris- 
tophe Colomb," '^ to which the name of Christopher Columbus 
is signed, together with those of his mother and next brother, 
Giovanni, relinquishing all their right to a house and lot then 
sold by the father, Dominico Colombo, show this. 

In these documents, of which the last is dated August 7th, 
1473, or at least in the earlier ones, the signature of Columbus 
is followed, according to the Genoese custom, with his occupa- 
tion, which was stated as that of a weaver of woollen goods, 
which was the trade of most of the members of the Columbus 
family, f 

The occurrence of the name of Columbus in legal documents 
at Genoa and Savona, during the years generally included in the 



* Harrisse's " Christophe Colomb," torn, ii., pp. 419-26. 

f "The Wife of Columbus," 1873, by M. Nicolau Florentino (whose real name is 
Senhor Gabriel Pereira, Director of the National Library of Lisbon) and Senhora 
Regina Maney, a valuable contribution to Columbian literature, and one based upon 
authentic archives and documents. 



ON COLUMBUS. 33 

seafaring period of his life, would indicate that he was occasion- 
ally if not frequently at home during that period with his father ; 
that his profession, as given, was more or less continuously dur- 
ing those years that of a weaver of woollen goods, and hence 
that probably his exploits at sea were not so constant or so long 
as his son Fernando had been led to believe and to relate. It is 
probable that Columbus commenced his visits to Portugal in 
1470, and went to stay in the latter part of 1473, for it is nearly 
certain that he went to the island of Madeira, a leading Portu- 
guese possession, in or prior to 1474.* The occasion of his 
going to Portugal was not accident or battle or shipwreck, but 
it was in pursuit of occupation and fortune, as many other Italians 
had done and were then doing. During the period of Portuguese 
leadership in maritime enterprise, there was a considerable immi- 
gration of French and Italians to Portugal ; and as the latter now 
only concern us, the names of the Spinolas, Cezares, Uzadamari, 
Cataneos, Lomellinos, Dorias, Grimaldi, and many others will 
testify. But his own name and blood preceded him to Portugal, 
for when he went to Lisbon he found his brother Bartholomew 
there, and this, no doubt, had added strength to his motives for 
going, for the two brothers were devoted to each other through- 
out their eventful lives. Independently of these considerations, 
Lisbon, at that time especially, was the centre of maritime energy, 
enterprise, and adventure, and offered great attractions to one of 
Columbus's temperament, who had followed the sea from the 
age of fourteen, and whose mind was fired with the ambition for 
discovery and renown. The enthusiastic study of the art of 
navigation, the bold pursuit of discovery, and the love of adven- 
ture, had passed from Lisbon to other countries, and as Colum- 
bus, flushed with a gallant career at sea, studious of maritime 
sciences, emulous of rivalling the great discoveries of Portuguese 
mariners and captains, perhaps, even probably, then meditating 
on his plans for a westward voyage, was alive to the spirit of 
his age and country, he very naturally followed so many of his 
own countrymen and his own brother to that busy capital. It 
was greatly to his credit that after so many years of active ser- 
vice at sea, and after such continuous exposure to the vices so 
prevalent among seafaring men, Columbus escaped moral con- 



* " The Wife of Columbus," by Nicolau Florentine and Regina Maney, pp. 43, 44. 



34 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

tamination, and preserved his purity of character and a highly 
rehgious and devout demeanor. He was twenty-four years 
old when he first visited Portugal in 1470. It would seem that 
he did not linger long at Lisbon, but followed many of his 
countrymen to the Portuguese Islands, those advanced posts of 
Portuguese enterprise and discovery. 

The researches made by Senhor Gabriel Pereira, Director of 
the National Library at Lisbon, and by his associate in the work, 
Senhora Regina Maney, among official and authentic archives, — 
the Torre de Tombo, national archives at Lisbon — the results of 
which they have embodied in their interesting little volume,* just 
published, seem to justify essential changes in the oft-repeated 
accounts given of the first marriage of Columbus. Up to this 
time historians have uniformly related that this marriage occurred 
at Lisbon, and that the acquaintance between Columbus and 
Donna Philippa Moniz de Perestrello commenced at the chapel 
of the Convent of All Saints, where he was in the habit of attend- 
ing mass daily, and where the young lady was one of several of 
her age and rank who, while living in the world, were regular 
attendants of the convent* probably for purposes of education as 
well as of devotion. Senhora Maney, in her preface to ' ' The Wife 
of Columbus," declares that she and the Director of the National 
Library of Lisbon had been able to discover among the national 
archives a different history of this interesting event, and I have 
embodied their account of it in this work. " We have estab- 
lished," she says, "the time and place of his marriage, along 
with other data, and we have found much about Columbus that 
is entirely new." 

The families of Moniz and Perestrello were both of distin- 
guished lineage in Portugal. The Monizes were of noble rank. 
Bartholomew Perestrello, the father of Donna Philippa, the first 
wife of Columbus, left early without a father, obtained when 
very young a position in the household of the Infante Dom John, 
who was in his earlier life united with his brother, the famous 
Prince Henry the Navigator. He was afterward created a 
knight in the household of the Infante Dom John, and still later 
he received a grant at his own request of the island of Porto 
Santo, and undertook its colonization. He does not appear to> 



* " The Wife of Columbus," by Florentino and Maney, />assim. 



ON COLUMBUS. 35 

have been its discoverer, or even to have been a companion in 
that maritime achievement of Gongalves Zarco and Tristan Vaz 
in its discovery. He was married three times ; his first wife 
was Donna Marg-arida Martins ; his second wife was Donna 
Brites Furtado de Mendon^a, and his third wife was Donna 
Isabel Moniz, daughter of Vasco Martins Moniz, who, after an 
active and successful career, had retired with large wealth to 
"Machico, on the island of Madeira, where he lived in " grand 
style" and dispensed a liberal hospitality. Donna Isabel, when 
she married Bartholomew Perestrello, was only eighteen years 
old, and she then left the luxurious and wealthy home of her 
father to share the declining fortunes of a gentleman of worth, 
energy, and enterprise, but to whom Porto Santo had proved a 
fatal gift, Bartholomew Perestrello. The governorship of this 
island had already sunk the portions of two wives, and all the 
donations he could get from the crown for the purchase of fer- 
tilizers, agricultural implements, stock, equipments, and the as- 
sistance necessaril)^ extended to his colonists. It now absorbed 
the portion if any of his third wife ;^ the rabbits, which had 
marvellously increased on the island, destroyed its productions, 
and the governor's health now gave way under the losses, 
struggles, disappointments, and ruin of many years. He died at 
Baleira, in 1457, '^^ the age of fifty, leaving his widow, at the age 
of twenty-five years, with a son and daughter, and in circumstances 
most precarious. The mother devoted her life entirely to the 
education of her children, Bartholomew and Philippa ; but now, 
with the consent of King Affonso V., the fruitless governorship 
of Porto Santo was assigned to Pedro Corea, who had married 
Donna Izeu Perestrello, a daughter of Bartholomew's second 
marriage, a member of the noble family of Corea. The price 
paid by Cor6a for the island was three hundred thousand reis 
in gold, and an annuity of thirty thousand reis. Donna Isabel 
Moniz, now relieved from anxiety, retired with her son and 
daughter to the sumptuous mansion of her father at Machico, 
and no care or expense was spared in educating the children 
according to their rank. Young Bartholomew embraced the 
military profession, and was correspondingly equipped by his 
good mother for the king's service in Africa with everything 
suited to his rank and aspirations ; but in 1473 he returned to 
Porto Santo and disavowed his mother's disposition of the island, 



36 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

and with the consent of the king annulled the sale to Corea, and 
assumed the task which had cost his father so many fortunes and 
his life. This ungrateful and undutiful conduct of the son com- 
pletely estranged him from his mother, who was now left at 
Machico with her father and her daughter Philippa. Although 
the father of Donna Isabel Moniz was very rich, he had sixteen 
children, and no trace can be found of any portion of this fortune 
received by his daughter Isabel, or by his granddaughter Philippa. 
The latter is represented as very beautiful, and the social and 
educational advantages she enjoyed must have made her quite 
accomplished. 

It was at this time, 1474, that Christopher Columbus arrived 
at Machico and joined the Italian colony in the Portuguese archi- 
pelago. Through his compatriots, who were frequent visitors 
and guests at the hospitable mansion of Vasco Moniz, he became 
acquainted with the young and beautiful Philippa, or perhaps the 
story of his meeting her at daily mass at a convent chapel may 
be transferred to Machico. Although he was the son of a woollen 
weaver, and had followed his father's calling at home, he was 
hospitably received by the noble family of the Monizes, for few 
if any there were among the young men of Machico so hand- 
some, accomplished, and plausible as the bold Genoese. He was 
then of the age of twenty-eight years. Donna Philippa was only 
twenty-one. The interesting little work from which these par- 
ticulars are mostly derived,* which, however, places his age at 
thirty-eight, thus refers to Columbus at this interesting period 
of his checkered career : " Once landed in Madeira, the daring 
Genoese immediately set about getting acquainted with the im- 
portant families of the archipelago, through his compatriots 
already established. He insinuated himself by his sympathetic 
manners, his fluent speech, which many took for proof of great 
instruction, and finally by his taking advantage of the fraternal 
predisposition of the Portuguese toward the Italian immigrants, 
who were much liked, whether in the ordinary occupations of 
life, acquiring the good will of the chiefs of families, or in the 
amorous adventures and most beautiful progeny, as far as the 
young female portion of the inhabitants went, who looked de- 
spairingly on the gallant Portuguese youth going off to x^frica 



" The Wife of Columbus," by Florentino (Pereira) and Manej', p. 44. 



ON COLUMBUS. 3/ 

to die unmarried, or to come back with hair whitened by the 
hardships of ocean and battlefield. . . . The very Donna 
Philippa Moniz de Mello, of whom it is said she was a very hand- 
some young girl, demonstrated the case in the alliance of the 
Monizes and Perestrellos, already mixed with the blood of the 
Teixeiras ; and this rapid sketch of Donna Philippa, made by a 
genealogist, reveals to us a marriage of simple affection con- 
tracted with Christopher Columbus." The character of Colum- 
bus must have been above reproach to have won such a prize. 

Columbus himself was poor. It is conjectured that the sale of 
a house by his father at Savona, in 1473, was either the result of 
family reverses or was necessitated to provide an outfit and 
traveling expenses for his sons Christopher and Bartholomew. 
Married at Machico, in 1475, with the solemn rites of the Church, 
the young couple went immediately to live in Funchal, " a resi- 
dence preferred by Columbus, because he thus remained in direct 
contact with the whole maritime movement. "* No circumstance 
could have been mentioned nor any step taken which could more 
clearly have indicated the deep purposes and high aspirations of 
the future discoverer of America, than his immediate departure, 
after his marriage, from the luxurious mansion of his wife's grand- 
father, in order that he might be in constant touch with the great 
movement of the age toward geographical discover)', maritime 
enterprise, and heroic conquest. It is related that Columbus and 
his wife were poor. The work of Pereira and Maneyf thus 
speaks of this event in the life of the future admiral : " On the 
other hand, what did Columbus bring from Genoa ? If anything 
came to him from the product of the sale effected by his father 
on the eve of Christopher's departwre for Portugal, little could 
be left, over and above the traveling expenses, for his mainte- 
nance at the first, until fortune should smile upon him or open 
some wa}^ or other for earning a living. The fact is. that he 
must have worked hard either to sustain himself while alone, or 
to provide, however poorl}-, for the indispensable exigencies of 
his married life. Did he draw sea-maps and charts ? Where 
did he learn to do so ? Did he open a shop or a boarding-house ? 
Did he exercise any other branch of activity that one could con- 
jecture or discover ? This is certainly an important question for 



" The Wife of Columbus," p. 46. f /</., p. 45. 



38 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

Christopher Columbus, the discoverer of America, but of very 
secondary order for Christopher Cohimbus, the husband of Donna 
Phihppa JNloniz de Mello. " Senhor Pereira was convinced from 
his access to and study of the pubHc archives, as well as from 
inquiries made of surviving members of the Perestrello family, 
that few if any marine maps or maritime traditions had been left 
by Bartholomew Perestrello to serve his future son-in-law in his 
vast schemes of discovery, for he had never been a mariner, dis- 
coverer, or a follower of the sea. Neither did Columbus obtain 
much information or inspiration from his brother-in-law, Pedro 
Corea, who, according to these recent researches, never fixed 
his residence in Porto Santo during his gubernatorial incum- 
bency, nor in Graciosa, of which island he was also the donee, 
nor was he a navigator or an adventurer in the maritime enter- 
prises of the day. On the contrary, Corea w^as a resident on 
his farm in Charneca, near Lisbon, and died there in 1485.* 

The marriage of Columbus and Philippa, in 1475, was followed 
by the birth of their son Diego, in 1476, at Funchal. These 
facts, which seem well sustained, go far to upset the usual narra- 
tives of historians that Columbus was married at Lisbon, that his 
son Diego was born there, and that he went with his wife and 
mother-in-law to Porto Santo. According to the accounts, based 
upon such recent researches, Philippa Moniz de Perestrello, the 
wife of Columbus, died shortly after the birth of their son Diego, 
who thereupon fell to the tender care of his grandmother, Donna 
Isabel de Perestrello, who continued to reside at the house of 
her father at Machico. On this subject we shall have more to 
say when we come to relate the circumstances of the departure 
of Columbus from Portugal for Spain. In the year following the 
death of his wife, 1477, or possibly in the latter part of the year 
1476, Columbus, most probably to assuage his grief, divert his 
mind, and to study further the great problem engaging his mind 
as affected by questions of climate and latitude, made his voyage 
to Iceland, of which we will speak in another place. The little 
volumef before us, to which reference has been made, thus 
speaks of his departure upon this important expedition : " The 
father, profoundly wounded in his passionate attachment to his 



" The Wife of Columbus," p. 42. t -^'''•' P* 47' 



ON COLUMBUS. • 39 

wife, took one of those extreme resolutions in which great moral 
sufferings sometimes end." 

The circumstance mentioned by Las Casas and other contem- 
poraries of Columbus — that of his having had his hair turn gray 
prematurely — now becomes a thread of testimony in connection 
with the charge of Harrisse and VVinsor that he deserted his wife 
when he left Portugal for Spain. At the time of his wife's death 
he was thirty years old, and the time assigned by his contem- 
porary historians for his hair turning gray was precisely at that 
age. It is, therefore, but a natural conclusion that so sudden 
and violent a grief, one which forced him to seek mental relief 
in a trip then regarded as heroic even among veteran mariners — 
the voyage to Iceland — was the cause of his hair turning gray. 
Sudden grief or excitement has frequently been known to pro- 
duce that result. The death of his wife and the change in the 
color of his hair occurred at the same time. The ardent temper- 
ament of Columbus lends strength to the conclusion. 

The period of time from 1470, when Columbus first visited 
Portugal, to 1484, when it is generally agreed that he left Por- 
tugal, is one in which the greatest confusion exists as to the exact 
dates of events in his life. The whole period agrees with the 
time which Columbus, in 1505, in a letter to King Ferdinand, 
wrote that he had spent in Portugal, in which he says that " God 
must have directed him into the service of Spain by a kind of 
miracle, since he had already been in Portugal, whose king was 
more interested than any other sovereign in making-discoveries, 
and yet God closed his eyes, his ears, and all his senses to such 
a degree that in fourteen years Columbus could not prevail on 
him to lend aid to his scheme." This eventful but confused 
period covered many events which are no doubt true, but with- 
out correct dates. He landed in Portugal in 1470, visited his 
father at Savona in 1472 and 1473, took part in engagements at 
sea under the French Colombos, corresponded with Dr. Tosca- 
nelli in 1474, went to Madeira in 1474, was married to Donna 
Philippa de Perestrello in 1475, witnessed the birth of his son 
Diego and the death of the mother in 1476, went to Iceland in 
1477, and on his return therefrom made one or more expeditions 
to the Portuguese islands or stations on the mainland of Africa, 
and during the remainder of the time was engaged in unceasing 
and wearisome neofotiations with the Kincr of Portusfal for the 



40 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

adoption of his plans for a westward voyage across the Atlantic. 
Owing to the uncertainty of the dates of this period, we have 
treated the various subjects without strict adherence to the sup- 
posed dates, aiming rather at presenting the character, studies^ 
efforts, struggles, and aspirations of Columbus as essential events 
in themselves, rather than attempting, as so many others have 
tried in vain, to reconcile dates or arrive at correctness. Hence 
our accounts of his studies, inquiries, investigations, self-prepara- 
tions, and the formulation of his plans, may relate to periods of 
sojourn either in Lisbon or at Funchal, for it seems probable, if 
not certain, that he may have gone back to Lisbon several times 
between 1474 and 1477. 

It was in the heated atmosphere of nautical and scientific 
studies, of naval adventure, and of pioneer discovery, at Lisbon 
or at Funchal, that the mind of Columbus caught fire with the 
prevailing fever. While it is not known at what precise time his 
theories and convictions, as to the existence of western lands and 
continents, were conceived and matured, or his ambition to 
become the discoverer of a new world was awakened, such were 
the attractions and influences of the scene and of the times, and 
such his opportunity of comparative repose and studious inclina- 
tion, in the intervals between his voyages, that this period of his 
residence at Lisbon would seem to have been the crucial time, 
which developed the grand schemes he afterward accomplished 
for the glory and benefit of mankind. This view is strengthened 
by authentic facts. His wife's mother, accustomed as she had 
been to scenes and narratives of adventure and discovery in her 
married life, and finding in her son-in-law an enthusiastic listener 
and ardent student of such subjects, took pleasure in relating to 
him all she had heard from her deceased husband concerning cur- 
rent voyages, expeditions, colonization, and discoveries. Thus» 
too, Columbus was afforded-ample opportunit}^ and time for in- 
specting and studying the papers, charts, journals, and memoranda 
of the old and experienced navigators and mariners he must have 
met at Funchal, which proved to him a rich mine of nautical and 
maritime treasures and information. His residence and marriage 
in Portugal and the Portuguese possessions made him a resident 
subject of the king of that country, and, as Portugal was then 
the leading nation in discovery and colonization, thus acquiring 
the islands in the Atlantic and along the west coast of Africa, 



ox COLUMBUS. • 41 

Columbus served occasionally in the Portuguese expeditions to 
and along the coast of Guinea. These studies and voyages, and, 
still more, the deeper researches which he made in the practical 
sciences, especially the science of navigation and its kindred 
sciences, raised him to a foremost rank among enlightened and 
learned men of his day. Indeed, as the sequel will show, he was 
centuries in advance of the times in which he lived. Cosmog- 
raphy became a leading study and favorite science of his, and 
in his straitened circumstances he turned it to good and fruit- 
ful account, during the intervals between his voyages, by making 
maps and charts for a livelihood. We have already related how 
slight had been the advances made by the scientific world in 
cosmography since the days of Ptolemy, who prepared his 
famous map of the known world at Alexandria about the middle 
of the second century of the Christian era ; and this map, con- 
sidered the most perfect, like all the other maps produced then, 
was, in the light of our present knowledge, a tissue of errors and 
absurdities. Such, too, was the map brought by Marco Polo 
from Cathay, and such the celebrated map of Mauro, the Italian 
friar, scarcely more than an improved copy of the former, which, 
however, gained for him from the Venetians the title of the " in- 
comparable cosmographer," and the distinction of a medal struck 
in his honor. Yet during all this period, and throughout the 
fifteenth century, the most perfect maps, by the most learned 
cosmographers, were absurdly incorrect and ludicrously quaint. 
The studies and voyages of then recent times, and the explora- 
tions of the Portuguese and Spaniards along the western coast 
of Africa and around the islands adjacent thereto, had tended to 
lift the science of geography out of the chaos and darkness of 
centuries. Even yet, in the days of Columbus, the map of 
Ptolemy was among the foremost authorities of the time. In 
many of the maps conjecture boldly supplied the place of knowl- 
edge, and popular fables of the most incongruous character were 
handed down and accepted in an age of advancing intelligence. 
Learning and ignorance were here strangely and grotesquely 
commingled. Able disquisitions on astronomy and navigation 
were set off with the fables of monsters, such as men with the bod- 
ies of lions and women with the faces of dogs, salamanders, giants, 
pigmies, and sea monsters so large as to kill and devour large 
staars and able to cross the ocean. Here we have the oris^in of 



42 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

the sea monster, which figures even in our da)' in the stories and 
jrarns of mariners and seamen. The study of drawing, which 
Columbus had pursued at the University of Pavia, though slight, 
now came to his aid, and enabled him, with his thorough and 
advanced knowledge of cosmography, to produce the best maps 
and charts. Another fact which added greatly to his knowledge 
of this subject, the most engrossing study of that age of nautical 
adventure and geographical discovery, was his correspondence 
with Dr. Paulo Toscanelli, of Florence, who was one of the fore- 
most scientists of his age, and the most accomplished cosmog- 
rapher. And here we might cite this remarkable correspond- 
ence, which commenced in the early part of his visits and 
sojourns at Lisbon after 1470, as further proof of our view that 
it was during this early period of the life of Columbus that 
he conceived and developed his grand and learned propositions 
and plans, which led him to the discovery of our continent. Thus 
it was that during his sojourn at Lisbon, Columbus, rich in learn- 
ing, science, religion, and exalted purposes, but poor in worldly 
goods, was compelled to practise the most unsparing economy ; 
and it was during this period that he supported himself by pre- 
paring and disposing of maps and charts of the earth. Such was 
the avidity with which good and accurate maps were sought in 
those days, that Columbus made this his entire source of revenue 
and support. Such was his honorable and generous nature that, 
from his scanty and pinching income, he spared the means to 
relieve the necessities of his venerable parent at Genoa, and to 
educate his younger brother, Diego, in whose subsequent love, 
loyalty, and service, and to a greater extent in those of Bartholo- 
mew, he found consolation amid the calumnies of men and the 
ingratitude of sovereigns. 

Columbus won position among the learned and scientific men 
of his day by his admirable maps, to the production of which he 
brought the most advanced cosmographical study and the skill 
of an accomplished draughtsman. His labors in this congenial, 
and to him then most useful and necessary avocation, were 
greatly aided and stimulated by numerous and important voy- 
ages which he made during this time. The whole circle of 
Columbus's acquaintance was thoroughly imbued with the spirit 
of the age. The Portuguese court and nation were foremost. 
The Portuguese islands in the Eastern Pacific were recent in- 



ON COLUMBUS. 43 

stances of progress in discovery and geography, for they lay 
on the very frontiers of the then known world. They were on the 
ocean highway of the frequent and important voyages between 
the coast of Guinea and the ports of Portugal. Columbus and 
all his connections and associates were seafaring people, and 
hence they unavoidably, and indeed from choice, fell in with the 
experienced and veteran sea captains and navigators, whp con- 
stantly touched at Funchal or Machico in their cruises to the 
western coast of Africa. These circumstances and others of a 
similar character, which we will relate hereafter, are most im- 
portant facts, for it was such surroundings at Lisbon that gave 
confirmation in the mind of Columbus to the great thought of 
western continental discovery, and fostered that exalted concep- 
tion until it culminated in the noblest achievement of man. They 
formed the more immediate education which prepared the man 
for his mission, and are second only to the great conception itself 
and its realization in the final triumph. They also go far to 
point out the period of his life, a question regarded by great his- 
torians as involved in doubt, when his mind opened to the possi- 
bility and progressed to certainty as to the existence of vast 
countries across the Atlantic. In a future chapter we will give 
an account of the great strides made by maritime nations, espe- 
cially by Portugal, in exploring the western coast of Africa, dis- 
covering and settling islands in the Atlantic, and in expanding 
the sphere of human knowledge as to the geograph}- of the earth. 
The writings of the ancients and of classical authors, which re- 
ferred in unmistakable terms and with inspiring grandeur of 
thought to distant continents, were brought into prominent refer- 
ence, and were studied with enchanting delight. The Cartha- 
ginians and their great island of Antilla in the western ocean, 
now, after the rest of centuries, came forth to inflame the public 
enthusiasm and to fan the flame of maritime adventure and ex- 
ploration. The " Dialogues of Plato," containing the account 
of the great island or continent of Atlantis, and of its submersion 
in the western ocean, were' studied, and their authenticity found 
then, as now, many earnest and learned advocates. Then, as in 
our own day, there were many among advanced scholars, who 
adopted and advocated the theory that the islands then known 
to the world — the Canaries and the Azores — were remnants of the 
submerged Atlantis, and that other and vaster insular remains of 



44 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

that vast continent or island existed in far distant regions of the 
Atlantic, all of them being more elevated and mountainous limits 
of the lost country.* While there was much of reason and fact 
to rest such theories upon, the feverish state of the public mind 
gave rise to other and imaginary islands and lands of vast extent, 
which mariners, driven westward from their course, had seen or 
dreanjed of as lying clearly in sight on the western horizon ; and 
many a voyager related to willing ears the exciting and fasci- 
nating stories of discoveries of lands l3'ing far out in the ocean, 
which subsequent knowledge of the Atlantic showed to have 
been mere clouds or clusters of clouds, which are commonly seen 
at sea, resting low and flat on the horizon on summer afternoons, 
and closely resembling islands. The thirst for such exciting 
accounts and wonders invited exaggeration and even wilful in- 
vention, and many a tale of western land was fabricated to feed 
the popular tastes and fancies. We know that a noted story of 
this kind was told to Columbus by one Antonio Leone, who re- 
sided at Madeira, and who assured our hero that he had dis- 
tinctly seen three islands lying in the western distance while he 
was sailing westward from the island of Madeira. Such imagi- 
nary islands were not seen alone by the inhabitants of Madeira, 
for the people of the Canaries labored under a similar imagina- 
tion, and optical delusion became a chronic disease with them. 
When the skies were clear and the weather warm, they could 
distinctly see an immense island lying to the westward, and 
its majestic mountains broke forth high above the horizon ; 
while they admitted that the island was seen only at intervals, it 
was always seen in the same place, though frequently not visible 
in the clearest weather. Anxious to nurse their belief, the credu- 
lous islanders thought that the fact of the distant island always 
presenting the same shape and same outline of mountains was 
sufficient to prove it a reality. Authorities from the literature 
of the past were not wanting to show the existence of islands or 
lands lying westward, with which this new discovery might be 
identified. There were also advocates for the claim that this 
was the famous Antilla which Aristotle mentioned. This island 
apparition also gave revival to the old Spanish legend of the 
island of the Seven Cities, which were founded by the seven 



Donnelly's " Atlantis," /«««/«. 



ON COLUMBUS. 45 

bishops who are said to have abandoned their country at the 
time of its conquest by the Moors, and who, under the special 
protection and pilotage of Heaven, sailed to this beautiful island 
with their flocks, and there built the seven famous cities. Other 
zealous believers in the newly discovered island believed it to be 
the far-famed island of St. Brandon, which, according to ancient 
tradition, was discovered by this celebrated priest of Scotland .x^i , 
in the sixth century. So universal was the belief in St. Bran- 
don's Island, that it passed into the domain of history, is 
alluded to in the current literature and histories of our day, and 
it was actually located on the maps of the fifteenth century as 
lying in the ver}^ direction in which the people of the Canaries 
now saw it. The new island was also identified by others with 
the Antilla of the Carthaginians. Such was the faith of the 
people in this wonderful island, that they actually petitioned the 
King of Portugal to grant them permission to fit out expeditions 
for its exploration and conquest, and expeditions actually went 
in search of it ; but it ever eluded their grasp. Such was the 
atmosphere in which Columbus, in the prime of his life, ardent 
and ambitious, lived for years, and as he carefully recorded 
accounts of all these things among his notes and memoranda, it 
is reasonable to suppose that they exerted some influence in 
'generating his earliest thoughts of discovery, and led him through 
and from the field of the imagination to those severer and deeper 
studies, which subsequently enabled him to expound his theories 
before the most learned bodies of Europe, and to refute all their 
misconceived objections. 

It was also during this period of his life, as supposed by his- 
torians, though probably erroneously, in the light of recently 
discovered facts, that Columbus may have taken part in other 
expeditions which extended through the Mediterranean and to 
the Levant, some of which were in the prosecution of commer- 
cial enterprises for Venetian merchants, others in taking a gallant 
part in naval wars and engagements, in which the rival States of 
Italy then unfortunately engaged against each other, and others 
still were undertaken with religious zeal against the Mohammedan 
rovers and pirates, enemies of his faith and his Church. In sev- 
eral of these adventures Columbus commanded a ship either 
under his uncle. Admiral Colombo, or under Colombo the 
Younger. In one of these singular and characteristic adven- 



4^ OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

tures, under the latter, Columbus, as usual, commanded a vessel,, 
and took a conspicuous part in so eventful and perilous an en- 
counter that it was only his own presence of mind, endurance, 
and good swimming that warded off the catastrophe that, by his 
death, would have left America undiscovered perhaps for cen- 
turies. It is related by his son and historian, Fernando, that the 
commander of the expedition, Colombo the Younger, went with 
all his ships to the coast of Portugal and lay in wait for four 
Venetian galleys returning from Flanders and laden with rich 
cargoes. The engagement which ensued at the meeting of the 
two fleets was desperate and frantic. The attacking ships and the 
merchantmen, which were no less well armed and prepared for 
war, grappled each other in deadly contest, and the officers and 
crews, as was the custom of the age, fought their antagonists 
hand-to-hand from their respective ships, each endeavoring always 
to board the enem}'. The struggle, which was marked with 
extraordinary carnage on both sides, lasted all day, and fierce 
was the encounter. Columbus with his ship engaged a powerful 
Venetian galley ; the vessels were fastened to each other by 
chains and grappling-irons, for they fought in those days after 
the manner of pirates, and one or other of the vessels and its 
crew, if not both, was sure to be destroyed. Both vessels were 
toward evening enveloped in flames from the hand-grenades and 
other burning projectiles, and were involved together in certain 
destruction from fire. The officers and crews of each vessel had 
to take refuge from the fire by throwing themselves into the 
water. While many perished, if not most of them, Columbus 
calmly seized an oar and swam the distance of six miles to the 
shore. Fernando Columbus states that, after recovering from 
his exhaustion, his father proceeded to Lisbon, and finding many 
of his countrymen, Genoese, there, he readily consented to make 
it his place of residence. But as this engagement took place 
several years later than 1470, and it seems well established that 
it was in that year that he went to Lisbon first, it is more prob- 
able, as Mr. Irving concludes, that this disaster merely led to 
his return then to his former residence at the capital of Portugal. 
Tarducci discredits almost entirely the accuracy and truthfulness 
of Fernando's account.* 

As it seems clear that Columbus went to Madeira in 1474, and 

* Mr. Brownson's translation of Tarducci's " Columbus," vol. :., pp. 20, 21. 



ON COLUMBUS. 47 

after his marriage there in 1475 went to Funchal to reside with 
his wife in 1476, and thence on his voyage to Iceland in the latter 
part of 1476 or early in 1477, there is but little probability of his 
having been in any such engagements during this period. His 
correspondence with Dr. Toscanelli took place about the year 
1474, and then and ever afterward his mind was absorbed in the 
grander field of oceanic and western voyages and discoveries. 
In 1477, while residing at Funchal, and after the death of his 
wife, and after leaving his son Diego with his grandmother at 
Machico, Columbus made that voyage, to which allusion 
has already been made, not the least remarkable of his many 
adventures on the sea ; this was his visit to Iceland, then re- 
garded as the tiltima Tkule, the utmost boundary of the earth. 
Subsequent historical discussions in relation to the voyages of 
the Northmen to Greenland and our own northern coasts have 
developed the conjecture that Columbus might have learned of 
the voyages and discoveries of lands west of Iceland, of Green- 
land, and even of our own country, from Icelanders, in 1477, dur- 
ing his visit to their country. But Columbus kept such ample 
notes and memoranda of all he saw and heard bearing upon the 
geography of the earth, that, had he heard of the western dis- 
coveries of the Northmen at Iceland, he would have assuredly 
mentioned it in his writings, and in the letter he wrote to his 
son, Fernando, on his voyage to Iceland. The following extract 
from that letter tends to exclude, upon the laws of evidence, the 
presumption that he had heard of the Norse voyages and colonies 
in the Western Hemisphere, which had then ceased. " In the 
year 1477, in February, I navigated one hundred leagues beyond 
Thule (Iceland), the southern part of which is seventy-three 
degrees distant from the equator, and not sixty-three, as some 
pretend ; neither is it situated within the line which includes the 
west of Ptolemy, but is much more westerly. The English, 
principally those of Bristol, go with their merchandise to this 
island, which is as large as England. When I was there the sea 
was not frozen, and the tides were so g-reat as to rise and fall 
twenty-six fathoms."* But doubtless his observations of the 
earth and sea at that point strengthened the grounds, upon which 
Columbus founded his firm conviction and confident assurance, 
that extensive lands and countries would be found by sailing due 

* Fernando Columbus, " Historia del Almirante," cap. 4. 



48 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

west across the Atlantic. After his Icelandic voyage Columbus 
is reported to have visited the Portuguese settlement of San 
Jorge de Mina, on the coast of Guinea. During this period of 
his life which we are now considering, he acquired great stores 
of knowledge in relation to the progress and results of modern 
discoveries, the location of regions and islands discovered and 
explored on or along the western coasts of Europe, and espe- 
ciall}^ of Africa, and in the practical sciences of cosmography, 
geography, astronomy, and navigation. His good judgment, 
clear perception, and varied experience enabled him to distin- 
guish between the real and genuine information and knowledge 
then accessible, on the one hand, and the visionary reports and 
conjectures of the heated and ardent imaginations of ignorant 
navigators on the other ; but he kept a record of all he saw and 
heard, and stored up, in his ripened and cultured mind and 
memory, all the learning and facts developed in the past and in 
his own times. Yet there was nothing that his vigorous mind 
and enterprising spirit did not utilize in evolving his grand con- 
ceptions of the earth and ocean. Believing that it was this 
period of his life that gave birth to his admirable and practical 
views and plans, we have thought it important to give at some 
length the history of his voyages and expeditions, of the means 
and opportunities he possessed, and of which he availed himself 
from the time of his first arrival in Portugal, soon after which he 
must have presented his claims and propositions to the king of 
that country. The following passage, from Mr. Irving's life 
of the admiral, will fitly conclude the review of this interesting 
part of his career, and of his progress from poverty and obscurity 
to fame and glory : " His genius having thus taken its decided 
bent, it is interesting to notice from what a mass of acknowledged 
facts, rational hypotheses, fanciful narrations, and popular rumors 
his grand project of discovery was wrought out by the strong 
workings of his vigorous mind." We should add that the mem- 
oranda and writings of Columbus, covering this extensive field 
of inquiry and study, were carefully preserved by him and trans- 
mitted to his son Fernando, who has given their contents to the 
world in his " History of the Admiral ;" and though impaired by 
the enthusiastic and indiscreet exaggerations of the compiler and 
editor, the work forms a noble monument raised by a loyal son 
to an illustrious parent ! 



CHAPTER III. 

" Theirs was the tread of pioneers, 
Of nations yet to be ; 
The first low wash of waves where soon 
Shall roll a human sea." 

— Anonymous. 

Christopher Columbus lived in an age of discovery, Spain 
and Portugal were the leading and pioneer nations that awakened 
among modern peoples the study of navigation and its kindred 
sciences, the spirit of discovery and the thirst for maritime 
adventure and conquests. The Canary Islands, now generally 
believed by historians and cosmographers to be the Fortunate 
Islands of the ancients mentioned by Pliny the Elder, by Plutarch, 
and by Ptolemy, visited by the Moors in the twelfth century 
and by Italian navigators in the thirteenth, were rediscovered 
by a Spanish vessel driven by a storm to that quarter in 1334. 
In the beginning of the fifteenth century many abortive attempts 
were made to bring them within the Spanish dominion, and 
though Spanish naval commanders landing there saw nothing of 
the fabled gardens of the fair daughters of Atlas and Erebus, nor 
of the golden apples which Terra gave to Juno as a wedding gift 
in the times when deities mingled in the convivialities of earth, 
such were the beauty and attractions of these noted islands that 
continued expeditions were renewed, until they were finally and 
effectually conquered by a joint Spanish and Norman expedition 
under a Norman commander, the gallant Jean de Bethencourt ; 
and though claimed subsequently by both Spain and Portugal, 
they were eventually adjudged to and became a permanent pos- 
session of the former. Great interest attached to the Canary 
Islands on account of the ancient and mythical traditions con- 
nected with them, for not only did the poets of Greece and Rome 
locate here the enchanted gardens of the Hesperides — a trans- 
formed tradition of the Mosaic Garden of Eden — but it was these 
gardens that Ptolemy, the great Helleno-Egyptian mathemati- 
cian, astronomer, and geographer, who flourished in the second 



50 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

century of the Christian era, the first to prove the earth to be a 
globe, a favorite author of Columbus, established as the point 
from which to compute the longitude of the earth. But they 
had long been lost to the world, except in dim traditions and 
mythical legends, until the advancing spirit of discovery in the 
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries added them, in fact, to the 
realms of the civilized world. Even in that more practical era, 
which still retained the traditional chivalry and romance of the 
Middle Ages, the most real events bore a tinge of sentiment, and 
some have supposed that the excitement and stimulus to adven- 
turous discovery which this age manifested was not wholly 
attributable to their practical importance, but rather to a roman- 
tic story of love adventure. Sentiment was then a potent ele- 
ment in all public events. The discovery of Madeira was traced 
by some to the accounts given in the fourteenth century of the 
flight of two lovers, an Englishman named Macham and a beauti- 
ful lady of France, enamored with each other, who fled from the 
lady's home in a vessel, went to sea, were driven by storms far 
beyond the sight of land, and were tossed and carried long and 
far over dangerous waters, until they finally saw and landed on 
a fair and wooded island unknown and without human presence 
save their own, then, for the first time. This lover's retreat was 
afterward identified as the island of Madeira. 

The Cape Verde Islands and the Azores, though dimly 
known, and even in the fourteenth century laid down on the 
maps, were only explored and taken possession of in the fifteenth 
by the Portuguese. These events, together with a greater 
familiarity with the Atlantic coasts of Africa, prepared the way 
for one who, like Columbus, was in advance of his time in all the 
studies, sciences, enterprises, and discoveries of an age eventful 
beyond precedent in advancing the progress of the human race 
over the earth. This remarkable person was Prince Henry the 
Navigator, of Portugal ; a prince whose career of energy, enter- 
prise, and progress — adorned, too, as he was with scientific 
studies, profound and learned research, and princely liberality — 
have handed his name down to succeeding ages an ornament ta 
his rank and his race. He did not leave events to drift slowly 
and fortuitously to their results ; he advanced at once to be a 
leader of his age ; he was a worthy and brilliant precursor of 
Columbus, who carried the work commenced by Prince Henry 



ON COLUMBUS. $1 

the Navigator to its culmination in the discovery of Amer- 
ica, 

Prince Henry was the fourth son of King John I, of Portugal, 
and on his mother's side he was descended from John of Gaunt, 
Duke of Lancaster. He was born on March 4th, 1394, and was 
distinguished while a youth for his courage and brilliant achieve- 
ments in the wars against the Moors of Barbary. Returning 
from the conquest of Ceuta, in 141 5, he received the order of 
knighthood for his chivalrous deeds, and then, going to reside 
at an Atlantic retreat near Cape St. Vincent, he fitted out naval 
expeditions against the Moors on the coast of Africa. Having 
served through three campaigns of naval warfare, besides the 
mihtary expeditions under his father in Barbary, he acquired a 
vast amount of information in relation to Africa, both in the in- 
terior, south of the Mediterranean, and along the coast of Guinea. 
Instead of spending his life amid the allurements of the court of 
Portugal, he devoted himself to study and to works of utility 
and glory to his country. He was distinguished for his learn- 
ing, especially in the sciences of mathematics, geography, and 
navigation. In his retreat in the Algarve, near Sagres and Cape 
St. Vincent, he attracted by his enterprise, learning, and munifi- 
cence men of science and study around him. He became also 
an accomplished astronomer. He erected at Sagres a naval and 
astronomical observatory and nautical school, at which young 
noblemen and other earnest students might study all the sciences 
connected with navigation, and he appointed as its president the 
learned cosmographer and scientific navigator, James Mallorca. 
Prince Henry, after studying ancient and modern scholars and 
authors, boldly adopted the opinion that the prevailing belief 
that the coast of Africa ended at Cape Nun was false ; that, on 
the contrary, the torrid zone at the equator was not impassable 
and unnavigable, on account of the stifling and destroying heats 
of the sun ; that Cape Bojador was not the last and only secure 
point of navigation ; that beyond this Cape the Atlantic was 
navigable ; that great and valuable discoveries could be made 
by tracing its line to the southward ; and, finally, he adopted the 
■view that Africa was circumnavigable, and that India, with its 
vast and wealthy empires and lucrative commerce, could be 
reached by sailing around the southern end of Africa. Prince 
.Henry commenced sending out expeditions to solve this dreaded 



52 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

yet fascinating problem. The first of these, in 1418, consisting 
of two vessels under the command of Joao Gongalves Zarco and 
Tristan Vaz, intended to pass Cape Nun, was driven off the 
coast by storms, and resulted in the accidental discovery of Porto 
Santo. The next year the same captains discovered and colo- 
nized the island of Madeira, under the patronage of Prince Henry 
and the court of Lisbon. During twelve succeeding years he 
continued to send expedition after expedition. Cape Nun was 
passed, and Cape Bojador was reached, but beyond this nothing 
was accomplished, except to seem, alas ! to confirm the popular 
belief that this was the limit of the habitable world, and that 
whoever doubled Cape Bojador would never return. The un- 
daunted prince persevered against these prejudices and the home 
clamors at the expense of these fruitless expeditions, until, in 
1433, one of his expeditions doubled this dreaded cape — an era 
in the history of navigation which, together with the recent dis- 
covery of the Azores, produced a great sensation in Portugal and 
throughout maritime Europe. These expeditions were regarded 
now with universal favor, as tending to enlarge the domain of 
Christendom. In 1441, at the solicitation of Prince Henry, the 
Pope granted to Portugal all the countries it could conquer from 
Cape Bojador to India. Indeed, these expeditions were regarded 
as hol}^ or as naval crusades, and the Holy See conferred upon 
them extraordinary spiritual favors. Having extended their dis- 
coveries to the mouth of a river nearly two hundred miles south 
of Cape Bojador, in 1445, the Portuguese sailed down the coast 
of Africa as far as Cape Verde ; and now these expeditions 
became profitable on account of the rich returns in gold and 
slaves, and the glory of Portugal's having advanced in that direc- 
tion farther than any other European nation. In 1447 the limit 
of discovery was advanced to the river Gambia, and just before 
the death of Prince Henry, which occurred on November 13th, 
1460, one of his expeditions had reached Sierra Leone. This 
noble prince did not live long enough to realize his fond hope of 
reaching India by sailing southward and eastward around Africa ; 
but he had seen the Portuguese flag carried beyond the limits of 
all other European discovery and conquest in that direction. 
He bequeathed his spirit and his ambition to his country. Por- 
tugal, persevering in his grand purposes, which had now become 
national, in 1524, under Vasco, de Gama, succeeded, but after 



ON COLUMBUS. 53 

Columbus had discovered the new world, in doubling the Cape 
of Storms, whose name was then changed to the Cape of Good 
Hope, in reaching and sailing along the southern coast of India, 
and in thus opening to Europe the rich Oriental markets of Asia. 
So noble and brilliant a man was Prince Henry, and his work 
was so conducive to that of Columbus, that we will give here a 
personal account of him by one of Portugal's oldest and most 
distinguished historians : " He was bulky and strong ; his com- 
plexion red and white ; his hair coarse and shaggy. His aspect 
produced fear in those not accustomed to him, not in those who 
were ; for even in the strongest current of his vexation at any- 
thing his courtesy always prevailed over his anger. He was 
patient in labor, bold and valorous in war, versed in arts and 
letters ; a skilful fencer ; in the mathematics superior to all men 
of his time ; generous in the extreme, and zealous in the extreme 
for the increase of the faith. No bad habits were known in him. 
He did not marry, nor was it known that he ever violated the 
purity of continence." * 

Had not Columbus been a man of original thought and inde- 
pendent character, he would have assuredly followed up the un- 
accomplished plans- of Prince Henry the Navigator, for sailing 
and exploring around Southern Africa, and reaching Asia by a 
southeastern passage around the Cape of Good Hope. Like all 
the leading men of his times, he was deeply interested in and 
thoroughly aroused by the achievements of the Prince and the 
great discoveries of the Portuguese. Columbus, like Prince 
Henry, was " full of thoughts of lofty enterprise and acts of gen- 
erous spirit," and, led by these noble sentiments, we now find 
him, in 1470, at Lisbon, among the throng of enterprising men, 
navigators, mathematicians, astronomers, and cosmographers, 
who had been attracted thither by the excitement of discovery, 
of which that capital was the focus, and by the pre-eminent 
energy and activity in maritime undertakings and conquests, 
which had raised Portugal from the smallest in size to be the 
foremost of European nations in glory and conquest. 

Columbus was the most earnest and studious man in that active 
and restless throng of progressive men, and in his deep thoughts 
was generated a new departure from the accustomed course of 



* Favia y Sousa, " Asia Portuguesa." 



54 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

navigation and discovery. From the accounts given by Fer- 
nando Columbus and Las Casas, Mr. Irving summarizes the fol- 
lowing personal description of the man, who was then coming 
forward to the accomplishment of results far grander and more 
useful to mankind than the great achievements of Prince Henry, 
for these two men stand forth as the paragons of that remarkable 
age. " According to these accounts," Mr. Irving writes of the 
coming man, " he was tall, well-formed, muscular, and of an ele- 
vated and dignified demeanor. His visage was long, and neither 
full nor meagre ; his complexion fair and freckled and inclined 
to ruddy ; his nose aquiline ; his cheek-bones were rather high, 
his eyes light gray, and apt to enkindle ; his whole countenance 
had an air of authority. His hair in his youthful days was of a 
light color, but care and trouble, according to Las Casas, soon 
turned it gray, and at thirty years of age it was quite white. He 
was moderate and simple in diet and apparel, eloquent in dis- 
course, engaging and affable with strangers, and his amiableness 
and suavity in domestic life strongly attached his household to 
his person. His temper was naturally irritable, but he subdued 
it by the magnanimity of his spirit, comporting himself with a 
courteous and gentle gravity, and never indulging in any intem- 
perance of language. Throughout his life he was noted for 
strict attention to the offices of religion, observing rigorously the 
fasts and ceremonies of the Church ; nor did his piety consist in 
mere forms, but partook of that lofty and solemn enthusiasm 
with which his whole character was strongl}' tinctured." This 
account by Mr. Irving has prepared us for another description 
by the manly and even more admiring pen of the Count de 
Lorgues, which is substantially given in the next paragraph. 

The personal appearance of Columbus, prepossessing and im- 
posing as it was, gave but a faint insight into the higher qualities 
of his mind and soul, as reverently represented to us by the 
venerable Count de Lorgues. His character was embellished 
with rich gifts of nature and of grace, of education and study, of 
magnanimity and virtue. The simplicity of his attire, so far 
from lessening the appreciation and respect of men, seemed to 
accord with the grandeur of his nature and the loftiness of his 
mind. His modesty only gave distinction to his presence. The 
grace and ease of his manners and the dignity and self-conscious- 
ness of his purposes enabled him to appear to advantage before 



ON COLUMBUS. 55 

the proudest noblemen and grandees, as well as before the most 
powerful and ceremonious sovereigns. His garments were long 
worn but well preserved, spotless and unrent, and his linen was 
always of the finest texture and purest white. He had a refined 
and delicate taste, loved nature and the beauties of nature, and 
while he admired the productions of the sea, he eagerly enjoyed 
and admired flowers, birds, and other productions of the land. 
His long and frequent following of the sea never tainted his mind 
or manners with the coarseness or vices of seamen ; his language 
was refined and chaste, he never indulged in games of chance, 
avoided all effeminate pleasures, used but little wine, preferred 
vegetable food, was frugal on land as he was at sea, and his 
favorite beverage was orange water flavored with sugar or candy. 
His religious inclinations were as fresh and constant at sea and 
among distant and barbarous peoples as they were in his own 
family. He sought the guidance of Heaven, and whenever he 
succeeded in any of his undertakings, his first impulse was to 
render thanks to God. 

In his temperament, I must sa)% he was irascible, but this 
failing he is known to have controlled and subdued by the 
strength of his mind and the scrupulous and religious training of 
his conscience. I will have but one occasion to relate his 
yielding wholly to the anger and violence which injustice and 
petty persecutions so naturally aroused in men of his nature ; but 
the wrong had been long endured, and the yielding was of short 
duration. He was generous almost beyond question, and gave 
away the scanty means he needed even for purchasing the neces- 
saries of life, in order to succor and relieve the poor or ship- 
wrecked seamen who had followed him over the seas, and to 
those even who had requited his generosity with the basest in- 
gratitude. In his intercourse with men he was patient, conde- 
scending, and affable. To the rough and profligate, the treacher- 
ous and violent, with whom he was so constantly thrown in con- 
tact, and over whom he held* almost at times unlimited power, 
he was mild, just, and forbearing, and his conduct, in many of 
the most trying and embarrassing positions in which it were 
possible for a man to be thrown, was marked by wisdom, tact, 
and good sense. With all this, his nature overflowed with senti- 
ment, and his fancy revelled in the most portentous anticipations 
and achievements. In the midst of his struggles and successes 



$6 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

he took an exquisite pleasure in the beauties of nature, and failed 
not to notice and admire the smallest as well as the grandest 
things of creation. His enthusiasm was unbounded, his faith 
jubilant, his hopes inexhaustible. In the home circle he was 
amiable and gentle, and won the hearts of those around him ; 
jet he was capable of the most uncompromising severity when 
needed, and of the most just indignation. Even royalty itself 
was made to feel his just abhorrence of wrong. Such is a faint 
outline of the character of the man to whom the world owes and 
now acknowledges so much. 

At Lisbon, on the arrival and during the residence of Colum- 
bus in that capital, all was activity, energy, bustle, and excite- 
ment ; and every pulsation of the public heart and aspiration of 
the popular ambition were directed toward prosecuting the great 
works commenced by Prince Henry in the discovery, explora- 
tion, and conquest of distant countries. The king, the court, the 
high dignitaries of the Church — who then usually discharged the 
highest and most important functions of the government — the 
nobility, the gentry, the middle and lower classes of the people, 
were all swayed by the prevailing sentiment, dominated by the 
popular enthusiasm, and carried along by the ambition of the 
day. Portugal was still prosecuting the patriotic enterprises of 
Prince Henr}^ and to reach Asia, with its vast and populous 
empires; to make the wealth and markets of the East tributary 
to European predominance, interest, and luxury ; to plant the 
national flag on distant conquests ; to find the brilliant and im- 
perial court of the Grand Khan and the long- sought Christian 
empire of Prester John, and to unite vast Oriental countries, with 
their teeming populations, to the Latin Church and to the spirit- 
ual sway of the successors of St. Peter, were the aspirations of 
the maritime European nations, and especially of little Portugal, 
in the fifteenth century. From time to time Lisbon was agitated 
over the successes of the national expeditions sent to explore the 
coast of Africa and to open the pas^ge to Asia ; by the return of 
fleets that had extended the field of discovery and enterprise, 
and by the departure of new expeditions — all which gave con- 
stant food to the excitement of the public mind. 

The public events of the day, the new discoveries of the Por- 
tuguese, and the expansion of the boundaries of human knowl- 
edge and of human civilization, went far to educate the mind of 



ON COLUMBUS. 57 

Columbus up to the great work for which he seemed destined ; 
but his intelligent, active, and enterprising intellect did not stop 
at this point of educational and mental development, which was 
attained by others, his contemporaries. He studiously delved 
into the writings of ancient and modern authors on cosmography, 
and studied all the existing maps of the earth. Though com- 
paratively an obscure man, he became, in actual merit though 
not in reputation, one of the foremost men of his age in such 
learning ; and, though destitute of prestige, he became a man 
far in advance of his age and times, and prepared to meet and 
refute the opposition of most learned bodies that could then be 
assembled in any country. He evidently became self-conscious 
of a high and irrepressible destin}^ 

It is believed that Columbus, after studying the subject for 
years, had about the year 1474 arrived at a definite and positive 
belief that, by sailing westward across the Atlantic, the unknown 
lands, islands, and continents of the western ocean would be dis- 
covered. He did not follow the theory of Prince Henry of Por- 
tugal, that the only route to Asia by sea was that which led 
around the continent of Africa and by doubling the Cape of 
Good Hope. He believed that the most direct route to Asia 
was a western passage across the Atlantic ; and while this latter 
part of the theory of Columbus was an error of detail, the theory 
upon which he based it was correct, for the lands were there : 
they lay in the very direction in which he sailed ; and by sailing 
westward he found them ! It is singular that neither Prince 
Henry the Navigator nor Christopher Columbus lived to realize 
the real value of the services which they had rendered to man- 
kind. It was in the last year we have named above that 
Columbus is known to have mentioned for the first time his great 
theory to others. Heretofore his thoughts lay buried in his 
mind, but in his mind they constituted a real discovery. 

Earl}' in 1474 Columbus opened a correspondence with Dr. 
Paul Toscanelli, the learned physician, cosmographer, and geog- 
rapher, of Florence, one of the most advanced scientists of the 
age, and one not only known and honored at Rome, but appealed 
to and consulted by the explorers and cosmographers of the 
time, who had already been in correspondence with King 
Affonso v., through the Canon Fernando Martinez, on the sub- 
ject of the Portuguese voyages to Guinea. To this learned doc- 



58 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

tor Columbus wrote, and announced his theory and intention of 
testing the whole question, by making in person a voyage west- 
ward across the ocean, and his desire to lind the opportunity of 
thus demonstrating the true shape and formation of the earth by 
sailing around it ; and he sent to the doctor a small globe explain- 
ing his views. Dr. Toscanelli's answer to Columbus is dated 
June 25th, 1474, in which he applauds in enthusiastic terms the 
latter's intention of sailing westward, imparts to him much new 
and quaint information on the subject, assures him of success in 
such unmeasured terms as to assume the result as an actual fact, 
and praises his zeal for the extension of the area of Christendom. 
Believing, as he did, in the practicability of reaching India by 
the western route, as proposed by Columbus, Dr. Toscanelli 
sent to the former, with his noble letter of encouragement and 
commendation, and as a return for the globe he had received 
from him, a map then of great value, which was prepared and 
made up of information and suggestions partly obtained from 
the celebrated map of Ptolemy and partly from the writings of 
Marco Polo. This celebrated map, which was carried by Colum- 
bus on'his first voyage — the one which resulted in the discovery 
of America — confirmed the previous impressions of Columbus, 
for it located the eastern coasts of Asia in front of the western 
coasts of Europe and Africa ; the intervening ocean was regarded 
as the great highway leading from Europe to Asia, and while it 
seems to us singular how the width of the Atlantic could have 
been so greatly underestimated, this must be understood as a 
mistake caused partly by the imperfect knowledge of the earth 
possessed at that day, and by the corresponding exaggeration 
by Marco Polo and other authors of the size and width of the 
continent of Asia, and its supposed vast unknown empires. On 
this early and pioneer map are delineated and located, at con- 
venient but conjectural distances apart, the great continental 
islands of Cipango, Antilla, and other islands of Eastern Asia. 
This noted map, with all its errors and misconceptions, was far 
in advance of the geographical knowledge of the age in which it 
was produced, and withal contained the pregnant and fruitful 
germs of many truths. Columbus was wonderfully encouraged 
and animated by this assuring and sympathetic letter of Dr. 
Toscanelli, and his mind became immovably bent on the great 
enterprise upon which it had been so long meditating. He pro- 



ON COLUMBUS. $g 

cured a cop)^ of the work of Marco Polo, in whose learned and 
fascinating pages he read of the vast and great empires of Cathay 
and Mangi, of their boundless riches and inexhaustible resources, 
and upon whose shores a navigator, sailing directly westward 
from Europe, according to Dr. Toscanelli, would be certain to 
land. In these richly laden pages Columbus read of the bound- 
less empire of the Grand Khan of Tartary, of his wealth, grandeur, 
and power, the magnificence and splendor of the metropolitan 
cities of Cambalu and Quinsai, and the vastness and astounding 
details of the immense island of Cipango or Zipangi, which last 
is located in the ocean five hundred leagues from and opposite 
Cathay. Cipango abounded in gold, spices, precious stones, and 
the choicest articles of Oriental wealth and commerce, and the 
sovereign of the Imperial Island lived in palaces of immeasurable 
brilliancy, splendor, and luxury, the very roofs of which were of 
solid gold. While Marco Polo's narratives were exaggerated in 
their details, they contained much that was substantially true, 
and we now know that Cathay and Mangi were Northern and 
Southern China, and Cipango is now identified with Japan. The 
map and letter of Toscanelli and the work of Marco Polo had an 
unbounded influence upon the mind and faith of Columbus. 
They fired up to the highest pitch the already enkindled and 
enthusiastic imagination of that bold and ardent sailor, and they 
form a most important part of our histor3^ by reason of the un- 
tiring and active influence they ever afterward exerted on the 
opinions, theories, actions, and career of the future admiral. 
During the whole remaining course of his checkered and eventful 
life, and to the hour of his death, the views interchanged between 
himself and Dr. Toscanelli remained among his firm convictions. 
As he presented his cause to one nation after another, he de- 
picted the grandeur and wealth of the great Asiatic empires he 
expected to reach and bring into relations with the European 
world, and, in his deep religious feelings and zealous propagan- 
dism, he hoped to bring those empires, their sovereigns and peo- 
ples to embrace the Christian faith. Even when success crowned 
his efforts, he saw in the islands and lands he discovered the out- 
posts of the great Oriental empires depicted on the map of Dr. 
Toscanelli and portrayed in the graphic pages of Marco Polo. 
The errors as to the size of Asia and the width of the earth, east 
and west, were fortunate errors ; for had the reality been known. 



6o OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

Columbus could never have obtained recognition, nor ships, nor 
a crew of sailors, to undertake the voyage. 

Columbus, as we are informed by his son and biographer, 
Fernando Columbus, as the great scheme for discovering the 
remaining unknown portions of our globe developed in his well- 
stored mind, arranged the grounds upon which he built his 
propositions and plans under three distinct heads. He relied in 
support of his theories on three sources of information : First, 
upon the very nature of things ; second, upon the authority of 
learned writers ; and, third, upon the reports of navigators. 
And Columbus, with great method and consummate skill, had 
arranged his arguments and facts under these respective heads ; 
and this classification well represented the studies of his subject 
through which he had passed. 

First : He contended that the earth was a globe or terraqueous 
sphere ; that the circuit of this earth could be made by a traveler 
going either east or west, and that he could return to the spot 
from which he had started ; he boldly announced his belief in 
the antipodes, and then, following Ptolemy, he divided the cir- 
cumference of the earth from east to west into twenty-four hours, 
each hour containing fifteen degrees, or three hundred and sixty 
degrees in all. While he believed that the ancients had known 
of fifteen hours, extending from the Canary Islands to the Asiatic 
city of Things, which was supposed to be the most eastern limit 
of the known world, the Portuguese had carried the western 
limits an hour farther west by discovering the Azores and Cape 
Verde Islands ; and he computed that his proposed discoveries 
would disclose to mankind the remaining eight hours — one third — 
being the balance or unknown portion of the earth's circumfer- 
ence. This space was occupied by the Atlantic Ocean and the 
eastern portions of Asia, and, though as estimated by him less 
than the actual circumference of the earth as now known, he 
thought might be even reduced by the computation of Alfra- 
ganus, the Arabian astronomer, who had diminished the size of 
the degrees. With this data, drawn from the nature of the 
earth, correct in the main theory and erroneous only in detail, 
he contended that it was evident that a vessel sailing from east 
to west was certain to reach Asia, and whatever islands or lands 
rested in the intervening space of the ocean would thus be dis- 
covered. 



ON COLUMBUS. 6l 

Second : Under the second head Columbus manifested his 
usual research and learning. The classic authors of ancient 
Greece and Rome afforded him far greater authority for his 
theory even than modern authors, though his citations were well 
supported by the latter. Such writers as Aristotle, Seneca, and 
Strabo had believed that a ship might sail in a few days from 
Cadiz to the Indies. Strabo, too, had contended that it would 
be quite possible for a vessel to navigate on the same parallel, 
due west from the coast of Africa or Spain to the Indies, and 
that the ocean surrounds the earth, washing the shores of India 
on the east and those of Spain and Mauritania on the west. A 
passage from Aristotle is too remarkable to be omitted, and may 
be translated thus : " The whole inhabitable world consists of an 
island, surrounded by an ocean called the Atlantic. It is prob- 
able, however, that many other lands exist, opposite to this, 
across the ocean, some less, some greater than this ; but all, 
except this, invisible tons. " * Plato's " Dialogues" have already 
been alluded to, and here we have a direct allusion to a great 
island or continent called Atlantis, which had been the seat of a 
vast population, of powerful kingdoms, and of an advanced civili- 
zation ; but that a great cataclysm had involved this vast island 
in ruin and had engulfed it in the ocean, leaving the Atlantic 
unnavigable by reason of the mud and slime that prevailed in its 
waters. t So, too, in ^lian mention is made of " Europe, Asia, 
and Africa composing one island, around which flows the ocean, 
the boundary of the world, and that onl}^ is continent which 
exists beyond the ocean. ":|: There is also another work pub- 
lished among the writings of Aristotle, but which some authors 
attribute to one of his disciples, entitled " De Mirabilibus," in 
which it is related that, in the days of Carthage's ascendency, 
certain Carthaginian merchants sailed over the Atlantic Ocean, 
and after many days arrived at a large island, which was at a 
great distance from any continent, was well wooded, watered 
with great rivers, and possessed a fertile soil. The voyagers 
made a settlement on the island, had their families brought 
thither, and the colony grew in power and population. The 
magistrate of Carthage, when he became aware of this new em- 



* Aristotle, " De Mondo," cap. iii. f Donnelly's "Atlantis." 

I " Var. Hist.," lib. iii., cap. xviii. 



62 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

pire springing up in the ocean, and saw the mother country de- 
pleted of its population, feared that the new nation might grow 
powerful enough to endanger the independence of Carthage 
herself, and issued his edicts forbidding the emigration of Car- 
thaginians for this new settlement under penalty of death. Pom- 
ponius Mela* relates that when Quintus Metellus Celer was pro- 
consul of Gaul, the King of Sweden presented him with Indians, 
who had been driven by a storm upon the shores of Germany ; 
and although the Indian Ocean is mentioned as the medium over 
which they had been carried to Germany, the absolute absence 
of any such water communication between India and Germany or 
Sweden would leave the inference complete that they must have 
been borne across the Atlantic. Cornelius Nepos and Pliny 
mention this same circumstance. It is also related by Hugo 
Grotius that, in the time of the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, 
Indians had been driven by a storm on the ocean upon the shores 
of Germany, as will be seen by reference to his treatise on the 
origin of the American tribes. 

The remarkable lines of the learned Seneca, written in the first 
half of the first Christian century, are regarded as wonderfully 
prophetic of the discovery of America : 

" Venient annis, 
Saecula seris, quibus Oceanus 
Vincula rerum laxet, et ingens 
Pateat Tellus, Typhisque novos 
Detegat Orbes, nee sit terris 
Ultima Thule."f 

Mr. Joshua Toulman Smith, in his " Northmen in America," thus 
freely translates this passage, now nearly nineteen centuries old,, 
as follows : 

'* Naught now its ancient place retains ; 
Araxes' banks the Indian gains ; 
The Persian, Elbe and Rhine hath found, 
Far from his country's ancient bound. 
And ages yet to come shall see 
Old Ocean's limits passed and free. 
Where lands, wide-stretched, beyond our view lie 
Remoter than remotest Thule." 

The Latin professor in one of our classical colleges has furnished 
me with the following more literal and graceful translation : 



*_" De Situ Orbis," lib. iii., cap. v. f Seneca's " Medea." 



ON COLUMBUS. 63 

" An age in the dim distant future 

Shall the bonds of the ocean unbind ; 

Shall open up earth to its limits, 
And continents new shall it find, 

When ultima Thule has left 

But a name or a record behind." 

In more modern times, about two centuries before Columbus 
announced his intention of revealing to the world the undiscov- 
ered lands of the western ocean, Dante had announced in divine 
verses his belief in such a fact : 

" De' vostri sensi, ch' e del rimanente, 
Non vogliate negar I'esperienza, 
Diretro al sol, del mondo senza gente."* 

This beautiful passage has been admirably rendered by Carey, 
as follows : 

" ' O brothers,' I began, ' who to the West 

Through perils without number now have reach'd, 
To this the short remaining match, that yet 
Our senses have to wake, refuse not proof 
Of the unpeopled world, following the track 
Of Phoebus.' " 

And Longfellow, our own illustrious countryman, has rendered 
the same inspired words of the divine Dante into the following 
expressive English verses : 

" ' O brothers, who amid a hundred thousand 
Perils,' I said, 'have come unto the west, 
To this so inconsiderable vigil 
Which is remaining of your senses still, 
Be ye unwilling to deny the knowledge, 
Following the sun, of the unpeopled world.'" 

The " Cosmograpliia" of Cardinal Aliaco, who was born in 
1340 and died in 1425, was a favorite work with Columbus, and 
while the text and the map accompanying the same partake 
greatly of the marvellous, for myths go hand in hand with facts 
and history, it gave valuable information on the subjects of 
Columbus's deep and constant thought and study. 

But the most remarkable passage, that occurs in any work pub- 
lished before Columbus had achieved his great discovery, is one 
in the " Morgante Maggiore" of the Florentine poet Pulci, who 
makes the devil answer his companion Rinaldo, in allusion to the 



* Dante's " Inferno," cant. 26, v. 115. 



64 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

common superstition respecting the end of the earth being 
located at the Pillars of Hercules, our modern Gibraltar, thus : 

" Know that this theory is false ; his bark 
The daring mariner shall urge far o'er 
The western wave, a smooth and level plain. 
Albeit the earth is fashioned like a wheel. 
Man was in ancient days of grosser mould. 
And Hercules might blush to learn how far 
Beyond the limits he had vainly set, 
The dullest sea-boat soon shall wing her way. 
Men shall descry another hemisphere, 
Since to one common centre all things tend ; 
So earth, by curious mystery divine 
Well balanced, hangs amid the starry spheres. 
At our antipodes are cities, states, 
And thronged empires, ne'er divined of yore ; 
But see, the Sun speeds on his western path 
To glad the nations with expected light."* 

The author of these enlightened verses, showing a knowledge of 
scientific facts not fully demonstrated until more than a century 
afterward, was a contemporary of Columbus. He was born at 
Florence in 143 1, and died, before the admiral had succeeded in 
getting any recognition of his theories, 1487. The " Morgante 
Maggiore" of Pulci was first published at Florence in 1481. 

We have already alluded to the work of Marco Polo, who had 
traveled through many parts of Asia in the thirteenth centurj^ 
and the influence it exerted upon the mind, theories, and subse- 
quent career of Columbus He also attached great importance 
to the work of Sir John Mandeville, an English traveler, who 
in the fourteenth century proceeded to the East, visited the holy 
places in Palestine, and by the favor of the Sultan of Egypt 
acquired facilities for traveling through Armenia, Persia, India, 
Tartary, and Northern China, which last-named country was 
then called in the books Cathay. It is curious and interesting to 
notice in the life and writings of Columbus how his strong mind, 
while appropriating all the solid learning and verified facts re- 
lated by these learned and enterprising authors and travelers, 
was, like their own minds, swayed by the mixture of fact and 
fable which characterized theirs and all the other cosmographi- 



* Pulci, " Morgante Maggiore," cant. 25, st. 230. I have given Mr. Prescotl's 
translation of these verses. See his " Ferdinand and Isabella," vol. ii., p. 117. 



ON COLUMBUS. 65 

cal works of that and of previous ages. It was from such sources 
that Columbus derived his idea of the vastness of the Continent 
of Asia, which he believed filled the greater part of the unex- 
plored space of the earth's surface, and left the width of the 
ocean to be crossed only about four thousand miles from Lisbon 
to the province of Mangi, near Cathay, now known to be North- 
ern China. Columbus concluded that a voyage of no long dura- 
tion would carry him to the eastern provinces of Asia and the 
vast and opulent adjacent islands. Dr. Toscanelli, the learned 
Florentine correspondent of Columbus, had also transmitted to 
him a letter he had previously written to Fernando Martinez, 
the learned canon of Lisbon already mentioned, giving a mag- 
nificent description of those wealthy Asiatic regions, taken from 
the work of Marco Polo, maintaining the practicability of the 
western Atlantic route to Asia, and mapping out the voyage as 
laying in the route of the opulent and favored islands of Antilla 
and Cipango, at whose safe harbors the ships of such an expedi- 
tion could touch, replenish their supplies, rest their crews, and 
open those rich and productive markets to the commerce of 
Europe. It was even undertaken to show the distance between 
Antilla and Cipango, which was stated at two hundred and 
twenty-five leagues. The previously conceived views and plans 
of Columbus were greatly confirmed by such cogent and respect- 
able authorities, and his alert mind expanded to the vast achieve- 
ments which it had originated. 

Third : The reports of navigators concerning their voyages, 
and the indications of unexplored lands which they had observed, 
also made a deep impression on the mind of Columbus. In that 
active age of discovery every circumstance, however trifling in 
itself, was seized upon to confirm the aspirations of ambitious ex- 
plorers and discoverers. Columbus allowed nothing of this sort 
to escape his vigilant eye. His theories were confirmed by 
numerous objects which had floated ashore in Europe from the 
ocean, as so many indications of the existence of western lands ; 
shreds of knowledge derived from the veteran navigators of the 
coast of Africa ; the statements and rumors current among the 
inhabitants of the newly discovered islands along the African 
coasts ; the statement of an old Portuguese pilot named Martin 
Vincenti, that he had taken from the ocean a piece of carved 
wood, evidently wrought with an iron tool, at a distance of four 



(^ OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

hundred and fifty leagues west of Cape St. Vincent ; the reported 
sight of a similar piece of wood by his brother-in-law, Pedro 
Corea, on the island of Porto Santo ; the narration by the King of 
Portugal concerning the reeds of immense size, which had floated 
to the shores of some of the Portuguese islands in the Atlantic from 
the west, and which Columbus recognized as answering the 
description of the mighty reeds which Ptolemy describes as grow- 
ing in India — all these, and other similar reports, brought the 
theories of Columbus to a certain conviction of fact. Following 
up this line of inquiry, his notes show that he received also infor- 
mation from the inhabitants of the Azores of large trunks of 
great pine-trees, such as never grew on these islands, which 
w^ere floated to their shores from the western ocean. Still more 
important and startling, he was informed of the floating ashore, 
on the island of Flores, of the bodies of two dead men, whose 
features were not similar to those of any of the then known races 
of men. A mariner of the port of St. Mary reported that, in a 
recent voyage to Ireland, he and his crew had seen lands to the 
west, which they believed were the remote eastern lands of Tar- 
tary. The traditions and fables of the past centuries were re- 
vived in a maritime age like that, such as those relating to St. 
Brandon's Island, the islands of the Seven Cities, and other 
similar mythical colonies of less enlightened times. It is inter- 
esting to observe from his notes, referred to by his son Fernjmdo, 
how the practical mind of Columbus, though now worked up to 
a degree of wonderful enthusiasm, distinguished between fable 
and fact. He saw, however, from all these things, that an un- 
broken tradition — such, no doubt, as Mr. Winsor builds his whole 
w^ork on Columbus upon — showed the belief of ages that many 
undiscovered lands existed, and that the field of enterprise was 
open to him, and that the time had come. 

The authors to whom I have referred show, not the current 
and ordinary belief of the age in which Columbus lived, but they 
are wholly the examples of the most advanced and exceptional 
thought in preceding times and in his own. We have shown in 
our first chapter how the Atlantic was regarded as the Sea of 
Darkness, and the hearts of the most experienced navigators re- 
coiled with fear from its terrors. Asia was then unexplored ; the 
size and shape of the earth were unknown ; the ocean was a sealed 
mystery and a seething vortex of death ; the laws of specific 



ON COLUMBUS. 6/ 

gravity and of central gravitation had not been discovered ; and 
it was natural under these circumstances that astonishment and 
opposition should be provoked by so daring a project as that of 
Columbus. These facts, however, also show how Columbus, 
availing himself of rare works and studies, had advanced to a 
conviction far beyond the development of knowledge and science 
in his age. It is an unchallenged fact that to Columbus alone is 
due the merit of this great discovery, the revelation of one half 
the world's surface to the inhabitants of the other half. The 
achievement proves the fact. His studies and struggles, so far 
in advance of his age and so much in conflict with the prevail- 
ing convictions of the civilized world, present a most interesting 
phase in the history of the human mind — it was the effort of 
man, led by one master mind, to assert dominion over the whole 
earth ; it was the movement of human intellect to cast off the 
inherited ignorance and prejudices of ages ; it was a vast stride 
of civilization, of science, of thought, of conquest. Such was 
the mental and moral movement, with all its train of social, 
political, and commercial results, in which the world was led by 
Christopher Columbus. Truly did he say of himself : " I have 
been seeking out the secrets of nature for forty )^ears, and wher- 
ever ship has sailed, there have I voyaged." 

We have already related how the bold plans of Columbus for 
discovering the remaining undiscovered portions of the earth, 
and for exploring the space of ocean between Europe and Asia, 
had matured in his mind as early as the year 1474. Between 
that time and the period of his final career of success, which we 
are now approaching, it would seem that he actually proposed 
his plans first to his native city of Genoa and then to Venice, 
" the city by the sea." The times and circumstances of these 
negotiations are not precisely known, and some obscurit}^ rests 
upon this part of the admiral's career. It is thought that, from 
motives of patriotism and love for his native place, he proposed 
to Genoa first to take up his scheme and supply him with ships 
to carry it into execution. Not only was his proposal refused by 
the Senate of Genoa, but, after pleading the depleted condition 
of the public treasury, they even threw doubts upon his being 
the originator of the theory and plan. They alleged that the 
records of their city showed that, two hundred years before, two 
noble Genoese captains had sailed westward over the Atlantic, 



68 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

and had never returned or been heard of. Turning next to 
Venice, he met with a courteous but firm refusal. It is probable 
that these events occurred prior to 1476, as it is asserted that 
from Venice he returned to visit his aged and venerable father 
at Savona, whom he found bent under his seventy years and his 
lifelong embarrassments, and that he assisted his good parent 
from his own scanty means. He returned to Lisbon, which was 
then and for many years the central point of nautical and geo- 
graphical enterprise.* 

At length the time seemed to have arrived for Columbus to 
advance upon his great mission. The epoch seemed propitious. 
The late King Alphonso had been too much occupied with 
dynastic and political ambitions to embark in other and more 
beneficent, though expensive undertakings. Yet it is thought 
that Columbus proposed his plans to him before the death 
of that king. Though the expeditions commenced along the 
coast of Africa by Prince Henry the Navigator had produced 
great results for Portugal, and though the mariner's compass 
had grown into more extensive application, the mind of the king 
and the sentiments of the people had not thrown off the timidity 
and fear of the ocean, which had been transmitted to the Europe 
of the fifteenth century from past ages. But now, in 148 1, a 
3^oung, more intelligent, and ambitious monarch had reached the 
throne of Portugal in the person of John II.; the invention of 
printing had given great impetus to all kinds of study and re- 
search, and the secrets of knowledge were now an open book to 
all. The young king seemed to have succeeded to the energy 
and enterprise of Prince Henry. He erected a fort at St. George 
de la Mina, on the coast of Africa, for the protection of Portu- 
guese commerce, and looked with pride upon the maritime 
achievements of his country. The publication of the geographi- 
cal works of Marco Polo, Sir John Mandeville, and other great 
travelers and geographers had deeply interested all, and now 
the narratives of Benjamin ben Jonah, of Tudela, in Spain, in- 
tensified the already deep interest felt in the study of the earth 
and the remote nations, empires, and countries thereof. Rabbi 
Benjamin had started from Saragossa in 1173, with the view of 



* On these points the reader can consult with interest the pages of Irving and 
Tarducci. 



ON COLUMBUS. 69 

reaching the remnants of the scattered tribes of Israel, wandered 
over almost the entire Oriental countries, advanced into China, 
and reached the extreme southern Asiatic islands.* So popular 
and instructive was this work, that after its translation into 
Western European languages, it had sixteen editions. To this 
publication was added the works of travel by the two friars, 
Carpini and Ascelin, whom Pope Innocent IV. had sent as apos- 
tolic envoys, respectively in 1246 and 1247, to announce the 
Gospel to the Grand Khan of Tartary. So also was read with 
avidity the journal of William Rubruquis, a Franciscan monk of 
the Cordelier branch of that order, whom St. Louis, King of 
France, had dispatched on a like pious errand, and who went 
forth from the French crusade at Palestine, in 1253. The publi- 
cation of these great works in print in the fifteenth century, and 
their influence on the learned mind of Europe and their promo- 
tion of the spirit of maritime enterprise and inland continental 
exploration, form an interesting guide in estimating how greatly 
the invention of printing was influential in hastening the dis- 
covery of America. So prominently did the famous and long- 
sought-for Christian monarch of the East, Prester John, figure 
in most of these narratives, that, as late as the times of which 
I am now writing. King John II. of Portugal sent pious mission- 
aries insearch of this mythical and renowned personage, with the 
desire of reuniting him and his supposed Christian subjects to 
the one fold of Christ. He determined to revive the efforts of 
Prince Henry, and he expended both energy, study, and treasure 
in the most active prosecution of nautical and astronomical 
studies and improvements, and in increasing the means and appli- 
ances of maritime development. In his efforts to secure greater 
certainty of results and security to ships and crews, as well as 
more accurate guides and means of navigation, he brought to- 
gether the three most learned astronomers and cosmographers 
of Portugal, his own physicians, Drs. Joseph and Roderigo, and 
the distinguished navigator, Martin Behaim ; and the grand re- 
sult of their joint studies, researches, and experiments was the 
application of the astrolabe to navigation, by whose aid mariners 
were able to ascertain at sea at any point the distance from the 



* Irving's " Life of Columbus," vol. i., p. 62 ; Bergeron, " V'oyages en Asie," torn. 
; Andres, "Hist. B. Let.," ii., cap. 6. 



70 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

equator. The effect of this great discover}^ on navigation was 
magical. The learned saw in it the loosing of the shackles which 
bound the gallant ship to the timid limits of the coastwise navi- 
gation, and the unlearned sailor needed only to experience its 
unerring guidance at sea to inspire him with courage to brave 
the terrors of the ocean. Yet all these influences were princi- 
pally confined for the time to the learned few, and to the ad- 
vanced thinkers of the age ; but there was no living navigator, 
whose quick and experienced mind saw the value of this great 
step, and appreciated it more or as much, as that of Christopher 
Columbus. He saw that the age predicted by Seneca had 
arrived, when the bonds of the ocean should be loosed, when the 
earth's limits should be reached, and when a man of skill and of 
courage should discover continents. He saw at once from the 
astrolabe that 

" the sky 
. Spreads like an ocean hung on high." 

It seemed at first like a providence that had led his steps to 
Lisbon, whose king and court were such enthusiastic patrons of 
maritime science and discoveries. His mind did not rely upon 
common report or popular rumor and conjecture ; with him it 
was an immovable conviction resting upon scientific data. At 
the same time, being of a sanguine temperament, his enthusiasm 
rose to the highest elevation, and he felt himself justified in meet- 
ing kings and courts, and claiming the trial and the inevitable 
and just reward of his labors and researches. So exalted was 
his perception of the truth, that he felt that he could dictate his 
own terms to those who would reap the fruits of his bold con- 
ceptions. At the same time, he regarded even a hearing as a 
boon. In his intercourse with men he was courteous, simple, 
and gracious, and used both the persuasiveness of his eloquence 
and the cogency of his arguments. He knew that King John of 
Portugal was most anxious to find the route to India, for which 
Prince Henry had sought so many years, and this he thought 
opened to him his opportunity. He sought an audience with the 
king, which, after some delay and hesitation, was granted. He 
now presented his plan of a shorter, more direct, and safer route 
to the coveted regions of India, and proposed that, if the king 
would supply him with the necessary vessels, he would accom- 
plish the voyage to India, not by sailing around Africa, as the 



ON COLUMBUS. 7I 

Portuguese had been for years endeavoring to do, but by sailing 
directly westward across the Atlantic Ocean. He supported his 
proposals by arguments and facts drawn from the nature, size, 
and shape of the earth, from the writings of learned authors, and 
from the reports of veteran navigators. While he dwelt elo- 
quently on the vastness and wealth of the Asiatic empires he 
would find, he expressed the conviction that Cipango, the great 
island of unbounded opulence, would be the first land he would 
reach on his route. 

Fernando Columbus,* no doubt deriving his information from 
the note-books of his father, represents King John as receiving 
favorably these startling proposals, but that he declined them at 
first on account of the vast expenditure already incurred in en- 
deavoring to reach Asia by the African coastwise route ; that 
Columbus sustained his proposals with such facts and reasons, 
enforced them with such eloquence, that the king consented to the 
proposals ; but, when it came to the adjustment of the terms, as 
Columbus demanded concessions of such titles and substantial 
rewards, commensurate with the magnificent results he felt sure 
of accomplishing, that the negotiation fell through. The Portu- 
guese historians, however, represent the king as regarding 
Columbus as overconfident and vainly presumptuous, and treated 
him merely with royal condescension. In fact, the king's credu- 
lity in Oriental fables far exceeded the enthusiasm of Columbus 
in behalf of a rational, but then regarded as a new and rash enter- 
prise. The proposals were referred by the king to three learned 
men, Roderigo and Joseph, two expert cosmographers, and 
Diego Ortiz de Cazadilla, Bishop of Ceuta, a man of great re- 
puted learning ; but this learned Junto, regarding the plan as 
unfounded and chimerical, reported against it. But as King 
John was not content with this summary method of disposing of 
the subject, he convened a council composed of the savans of the 
kingdom, and requested their views on the subject. Though this 
learned body rejected the proposition of Columbus, it is evident 
from the speeches of the Bishop of Ceuta and of the Count of 
Villa Real, Don Pedro de Mereses, that Columbus must have 
gained some ground with the council, since his proposals were 



* "Historic," etc., cap. xii. ; Mr. Brownson's translation of Tarducci's "Co- 
lumbus," vol. i., p. 66. 



72 OLD AND NEW TJCIITS 

now apparently not rejected on account of their visionary and 
impracticable nature, but on account of the depleted exchequer 
and the preference of the Portuguese, through national pride, 
for the route proposed by Prince Henry, the route around the 
Cape of Good Hope, which had already, in its prosecution, led 
to such glorious results for Portugal, and had made her the fore- 
most of maritime countries, though the smallest. Even this re- 
sult did not satisfy the inclinations of the king toward an effort 
to accomplish what, if successful, would crown Portugal and his 
own reign with imperishable glory. It was at this juncture that 
Portugal made choice of a course, in respect to Columbus and 
his noble propositions, as disgraceful as the opposite course would 
have been wise and honorable. Yielding to the dishonorable sug • 
gestions of one of his council, King John, after mendaciously pro- 
curing, as if for the council, from Columbus, a minute plan of his 
proposed voyage and the maps and charts illustrative thereof, 
secretly and treacherously dispatched an expedition of his own, 
designed to rob Columbus of his glory and appropriate it for 
himself. Thus a caravel was sent out to cross the ocean in searc^ 
of the promised land of Columbus, under the false and deceptive 
pretext of carrying provisions to the Cape Verde Islands. 
The captain had instructions to pursue the route westward in- 
dicated by Columbus. After the departure from the Cape 
Verde Islands, and pursuing the westward route for some days, 
the first severe weather, accompanied with storms, brought back 
to the imaginations and faint hearts of the crew the traditional 
terrors of the Sea of Darkness. They quailed before the task, 
and disgracefully returned to the land they had disgracefully 
left. To shield themselves, they had recourse to open ridicule 
and raillery against Columbus and his project, representing his 
plans as impossible, vain, and absurd.* 

The lofty spirit of Columbus rose with indignation at this 
treachery when he heard of it, more especially when practised 
by a king and his council. He proudly rejected every offer of 
the king to enter into new treaties. Portugal had not only re- 
jected his offers, but had attempted to rob him of his glory. He 
resolved to leave the treacherous land. The loss of his wife in 



* Mr. Brownson's translation of Tarducci's "Columbus," vol. i. ; Irving's "Co- 
lumbus," vol. i. 



ON COLUMBUS. 73 

1476 had long- ago broken the last social link that bound him to 
the country. 

Mr. Irving justly writes of the difficulties Columbus experi- 
enced in getting recognition of his grand projects : " To such 
men the project of a voyage directly westward, into the midst 
of that boundless waste, to seek some visionary land, appeared 
as extravagant as it would be at the present day to launch forth 
in a balloon into the regions of space in quest of some distant star." 

Taking his departure from Portugal, in the autumn of 1484, 
Columbus, accompanied by his young son Diego, turned his 
course toward Spain. His departure from Lisbon was a secret 
one, as is supposed for the double purpose of avoiding forcible 
detention by the treacherous yet envious king, or by his creditors, 
for the former was desirous of reopening negotiations with him ; 
and such was the poverty of this most aspiring man of the age, 
that he was probably compelled to beg his bread, or purchase it 
on credit, while on the eve of bestowing continents on mankind-* 

The dignity and justice of history, the conservative caution 
and necessity for substantial material as the basis of a statement or 
conjecture, which ought to characterize historical criticism of an 
acceptable standard, should have prevented historians or critics, 
such as Harrisse and Winsor, from uttering another calumny 
against the name and fame of so eminent and historical a person- 
age as Christopher Columbus, or even a mere sinister insinuation 
— for such only is it — such as the intimatiqn that he deserted his 
first wife and other children when he left Portugal in the latter 
part of 1484. Winsor, imreasonably following Harrisse, to 
whom he himself attributes habitual scepticism, gives expression 
to this, among his many calumnies against the great discoverer, 
in the following illogical and unhistorical passage : " Irving and 
the biographers in general find in the death of Columbus's wife 
a severing of the ties which bound him to Portugal ; but if there 
is any truth in the tumultuous letter which Columbus wrote to 
Donna Juana de la Torre, in 1500, he left behind him in Portugal, 
when he fled into Spain, a wife and children. If there is the 
necessary veracity in the ' Historic,' this wife had died before 



* Irving's "Columbus," vol. i., p. 6g ; Mr. Brovvnson's translation of Tarducci's 
" Life of Columbus," vol. I., pp. 70, 71. See also the Count de Lorgues' " Columbus," 
and the general list of authors herein given, bearing on the subject of Columbus, etc. 



74 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

he abandoned the countr3\ That he had other children at this 
time than Dieg-o is only known through this sad, ejaculatory 
epistle. If he left a wife in Portugal, as his own words aver, 
Harrisse seems justified in saying that he deserted her, and in 
the same letter Columbus says that he never saw her again." 

Now the letter in question had no reference whatever to his 
leaving Portugal or to his first wife, whom he married in 
Madeira. It was written in 1500, when he was returning to 
Spain in chains, and with his manacled hands. It was addressed 
to a friend whom he had at court, and who, he knew, would 
communicate it to Queen Isabella, Donna Juana de la Torre ; and 
she, in fact, did communicate the letter to the queen. This 
letter is one of complaint over the wrongs he was then suffering 
from the hands of Bobadilla, in the name of the sovereigns, and 
was an appeal to them for justice, to which end he recounted 
what he had done and suffered in their service. Portugal had 
pg.ssed far away from his dail}' memories, at that dread moment 
especially, and he had no regrets for having fifteen years before 
abandoned a country where he had met with nothing but delay, 
deception, treachery, and wrong. The wife and children to 
whom he alluded in this letter were Donna Beatrix Enriquez 
and his two children, Diego and Fernando, all of whom he 
had left living together at Cordova, in order to embark in the 
perilous and momentous service of the Spanish king and queen ; 
his family was never reunited again, and it was true, as stated 
by Columbus in this important letter, he never had the happi- 
ness of living with his family again. Such was the treatment 
which Columbus had received in Portugal, that it would be a 
violent interpretation to put upon a letter written at any after 
period by him, that he expressed regrets at leaving that country, 
or that he regarded it, as in any sense, a sacrifice to have ex- 
changed it for Spain. 

This letter serves the double purpose of refuting two cal- 
umnies, which Mr. Winsor repeats after other writers, against 
the character of Columbus : first, that he deserted his wife and 
children in Portugal, and second, that he was never married to 
the mother of his second son, Fernando. It was, in fact, his son 
Fernando who accompanied his father on his fourth and last 
voyage, and received from the admiral's lips the details of his 
eventful life. These sacred communications between the father 



ON COLUMBUS. 75 

and son were, after the admiral's death, used as the materials 
for the " Historia del Almirante," written by this devoted son ; 
and in this important work Fernando states expressly that the 
admiral's first wife died before he left Portugal. Could there 
be a better witness than this, who repeated the very account he 
received from the admiral himself ? Is it possible that Columbus 
should, in this very same voyage, in a letter to Donna Juana de 
la Torre, have contradicted what he had just told Fernando ? 
But Mr. Winsor, in order to maintain his accusation against 
Columbus, found it necessary to deny the veracity of his son and 
historian, Fernando Columbus. It is the uniform voice of his- 
tory that the character of Fernando Columbus was above re- 
proach. In a Spanish work giving the history of the eminent 
families of the very city in which Fernando was born, he is spoken 
of as " a gentleman of great intelligence, bravery, virtue, and 
a great scholar." 

The letter of Columbus to Donna Juana de la Torre, which Mr. 
Winsor uses so uncandidly as the basis of his assertion that 
Columbus, in 1484, deserted his first wife and children in Por- 
tugal, was, on the contrary, relied upon by other writers as 
proof of the opposite conclusion, and they applied it to his leav- 
ing his second wife, Beatrix Enriquez, and his two sons at Cor- 
dova, in order to find a new world for Spain. Count Roselly 
de Lorgues, in his *' Life of Columbus," writes of this very point 
as follows : " Finally, these assurances (as to the legitimacy of 
Columbus's relations with Beatrix) received their last irrefraga- 
ble guarantee from the very hand of Columbus himself. In a 
letter to persons whose duty he considered it was to support 
his reclamations at the court of Spain, he reminds them that for 
the service of the crown he quitted all — wife and children — and 
never enjoyed the sweetness of living with his family."* Mr. 
Fiske, with the same misconception of the allusions in the letter, 
draws quite a different conclusion — one, on the contrary, honor- 
able to Columbus. He says : ' ' My own notion is that Colum- 
bus may have left his wife with an infant and perhaps one older 
child, relieving her of the care of Diego by taking him to his 
aunt" (in Spain), " and intending as soon as practicable to reunite 



* Winsor's " Columbus," etc., p. 154 ; Count Roselly de Lorgues' " Life of Colum- 
bus," by Dr. Barry, p. 43. 



^6 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

the family. He clearly did not know at the outset whether he 
should stay in Spain or not." * 

But now we have the result of the researches of Senhor 
Pereira, Director of the National Library at Lisbon, and of 
Senhora Regina Maney, among the national archives of Portugal 
— results bearing directly and powerfully on this point. For the 
information they thus give on the subject we are indirectly 
indebted to Mr. Winsor himself, for in her preface Senhora 
Maney states that when she applied to the Director of the 
National Library at Lisbon to join her in her researches, " he 
opened our Winsor's book on Columbus at the page where that 
author intimates that much that was new could probably be 
learned about Columbus from documents not yet examined in 
the Torre de Tombo (the national archives)." They accordingly 
looked where Mr. Winsor pointed the way, and most of their 
conclusions are based upon those very archives. " In 1476 
Diego Columbus was born, the only fruit of this union, the little 
fecundity of which has been to us an object of some reflection, 
when we consider the healthy stock both Donna Philippa and 
Columbus sprang from, as well as a few facts several writers 
hint at with regard to the epoch of that lady's death. 

" In Pira Loureiro's genealogical work, whose twenty-eight 
volumes have been most useful to us, we see the confirmation of 
our suspicion that the death of Columbus's wife must have fol- 
lowed quite close upon the birth of her son. Before the name 
of Donna Philippa is to be read the summary notice, ' that she 
did not live long after the birth of her son.' Did she die in 
child-bed ? Did she enjoy only a few days or weeks of the in- 
effable happiness of being a mother ? 

" This species of revelation, which by itself cannot define an 
epoch, contains a fact in the life of Columbus that has a certain 
logical value in turning that life less vague, which has much 
impressed us. This fact consists in the departure of the daring 
navigator for the Arctic regions in 1477. 

" We observe Columbus got married in 1475, had a son born 
to him in 1476, and left for a most dangerous voyage in 1477, 
there existing no known engagement of any kind or plans con- 
ceived and matured beforehand. The rapid succession of the 



Fiske's " Discovery of America," vol. i,, p. 399, note. 



ON COLUMBUS. 7/ 

three facts has a something of mystery about it, on account of 
the precipitation of the latter. Reason- and heart alike refuse to 
believe that the peaceful life of Columbus and Donna Philippa, 
who saw their union blessed and their poor home gladdened by 
the birth of a son, should in the very year following this event 
be rudely disturbed by a long separation without a sudden and 
powerful motive. 

The above transcribed phrase, and the fact of this rather 
violent separation, concur in perfect harmony in fixing the epoch 
of Donna Philippa's death as between the birth of the son and 
the voyage of her husband to the northern seas. 

" The grandmother of the little boy-child was to take the place 
of the mother, substituting her love and care for that of which 
death deprived the poor infant all too soon. The father, pro- 
foundly wounded in his passionate attachment to his wife, took 
one of those extreme resolutions in which great moral sufferings 
sometimes end." * 

The important facts thus arrayed by these accomplished Por- 
tuguese scholars, as I am credibly informed they are, already 
confirmed by the explicit statement in Loureiro's genealogical 
works, receive further confirmation from Columbus's voyages 
among the islands and main stations in Portuguese Africa imme- 
diately after his return from Iceland, from his abandonment of 
Funchal and Machico as a residence, his return to Lisbon, his 
long and ultimate stay in that capital, and the fact that during 
the remaining seven years of his sojourn in Portugal no mention 
is made of Philippa or of his having a wife. Repeating the 
cogent language of the authors of " The Wife of Columbus," 
" heart and reason alike refuse to believe" that it was possible 
that Columbus under such circumstances and facts could have 
" deserted" her, who had married him in poverty at Funchal, 
and shared his sorrows. 



* " The Wife of Columbus," Pereira and Maney, pp. 46, 47. 



CHAPTER IV. 

" Ay, nerve thy spirit to the proof, 
And blench not at thy chosen lot ; 
The timid good may stand aloof, 

The sage may frown — yet faint thou not ! 
Nor heed the shaft too surely cast, 

The hissing, stinging bolt of scorn ; 
For with thy side will dwell at last 
The victory of endurance borne." 

— Bryant. 

Though Columbus left Lisbon in the autumn of 1484, we have 
no traces of his immediate movements or presence until the fol- 
lowing year. Some have supposed that it was during this uncer- 
tain interval that he made propositions to Genoa and Venice. 
Such was his filial piety, such 'his love for home, that he now, 
no doubt, visited and assisted his venerable father, carrying with 
him his son Diego. It is quite probable, as asserted by some 
authors upon tradition only and without any authentic proofs of 
the fact, that from Portugal he again proceeded to Genoa, in 
1484, and for the second time earnestly pressed his application 
upon the Senate of his native city. It is further stated that the 
vessels of the little republic were all needed and were then 
actively in service at home, and not a ship could be spared for 
a service which would have reflected much greater profit and 
honor upon the Genoese. 

The first information we have of Columbus's arrival in Spain, 
according to Mr. Irving,* was in the year 1485. According to 
others it was in January, i486. The chivalrous spirit of that 
noble nation, its zeal for the ancient faith and for its extension to 
heathen peoples, the union of the crowns of Aragon and Castile 
under Ferdinand and Isabella, and the intelligence and energy 
of those two young and accomplished sovereigns, induced him 
to go, discouraged but not disheartened, to that gallant people. 



Irving's "Columbus," vol. i., p. 72. 



ON COLUMBUS. 79 

Tired, however, of the delays and disappointments he had experi- 
enced at the various governments to which he had appHed, we 
find him first in the south of Spain negotiating with opulent and 
powerful noblemen, such as the Dukes of Medina Sidonia and 
Medina Cell, who possessed immense estates, who even main- 
tained armies of their own, and were more like allies than vassals 
of the crown. The Duke of Medina Cell received Columbus as 
his guest, and was so thoroughly convinced of the practicability 
of his plans, that he was on the point of placing at his disposal a 
fleet of three or four caravels then ready for sea in his own har- 
bor of Port St. Mary, near Cadiz ; but the consideration that 
such an undertaking was more fitting for the king and queen, 
and that he might thereby provoke the animosity of the crown, 
deterred him from the undertaking. The apprehension that 
Columbus would go to France caused the duke to give him a 
letter to Queen Isabella, in which he recommended him and his 
project to her Majesty, and requested, in case the expedition 
was undertaken, that himself might be permitted to share in it. 
Columbus repaired at once to the Spanish sovereigns, then hold- 
ing their court at Cordova. 

There is a singular difference in the account given of this part 
of the life of Columbus by Mr. Irving and by Senor Tarducci. 
The latter does not find any trace of him in Spain until the spring 
of i486, when he states that his first visit to the Convent of La 
Rabida, accompanied by his son Diego, took place. Columbus 
is represented as leaving his little son with the prior of the con- 
vent, while he, supplied with money for his journey, a letter 
of introduction to the Father Prior of the Monaster}^ of El Prado, 
and fortified with the blessing and encouragement of Father Juan 
Perez de Marchena, started in the spring of i486 for Cordova to 
lay his proposals before the sovereigns. Mr. Irving makes 
Columbus pay but one visit to the convent before the signing of 
the capitulations with the Spanish sovereigns, while Tarducci 
relates two such visits, the second one being in 1491 or 1492, 
when Columbus, after exhausting all his efforts with the crown, 
was on the eve of departing from Spain for France. 

The Count de Lorgues states that Columbus went from Por- 
tugal to Genoa and Venice, there in succession had his proposal 
declined, and that he returned to Spain in 1485, when his first 
visit to the Convent of La Rabida took place. He also states 



8o OLD AND NEW LICxHTS 

that in 1491 or 1492 Columbus, despairing of aid from Spain, 
was about to go to France, but paid a second visit to the Con- 
vent of La Rabida. Yet the still later account of Justin Winsor, 
in 1 89 1, shows that author unable to determine whether Colum- 
bus visited the Convent of La Rabida once or twice. In one 
place he writes : " Ever since a physician of Palos, Garcia Fer- 
nandez, gave his testimony in the lawsuit through which, after 
Columbus's death, his son defended his titles against the crown, 
the picturesque story of the Convent of Rabida, and the appear- 
ance at its gate of a forlorn traveller accompanied by a little boy, 
and the supplication for bread and water for the child, has stood 
in the lives of Columbus as the opening scene of his career in 
Spain." * i\nd again he says : " This story has almost always 
been placed in the opening of the career of Columbus in Spain. 
It has often in sympathizing hands pointed a moral in contrasting 
the abject condition of those days with the proud expectancy 
under which, some years later, he sailed out of the neighboring 
harbor of Palos, within eyeshot of the monks of Rabida. Irving, 
however, analyzed the reports of the famous trial already referred 
to, and was quite sure that the events of two visits to Rabida 
had been unwittingly run into one in testimony given after so 
long an interval of years. It does, indeed, seem that we must 
either apply this evidence of 15 13 and 151 5 to a later visit, or 
else we must determine that there was great similarity in some 
of the incidents of the two visits, "f But subsequently, narrating 
the events of 1491, the same writer says : " A consultation which 
now took place at the Convent of Rabida affords particulars 
which the historians have found difificult, as already stated, in 
keeping distinct from those of an earlier visit, if there were 
such." :{: 

Mr. John Fiske, however, with historical acumen and de- 
cisiveness, but with less pretension to expert criticism, was able 
to arrive at a definite and positive opinion on the subject. He 
makes Columbus go into the service of Ferdinand and Isabella 
in January, i486, after an interval of over a year of unascertained 
engagements, possibly in Genoa and Venice, and he places the 
only visit of Columbus to the Convent of La Rabida in 1491, 
when he was about to abandon Spain in hopelessness. In this 



* Winsor's " Columbus," etc., p. 154. f Id., p. 156. \ Id., p. 173. 



ON COLUMBUS. 8l 

account he says : " For some reason or other — tradition says to 
ask for some bread and water for his boy — he stopped at the 
Franciscan Monastery of La Rabida, about half a league from 
Palos. The prior, Juan Perez, who had never seen Columbus 
before, became greatly interested in him, and listened with 
earnest attention to his story." * And in another place he says : 
■" It is pretty clear that Columbus never visited La Rabida before 
the autumn of 1491." 

Ferdinand and Isabella were two of the most remarkable, suc- 
cessful, and promising sovereigns in Europe. As two prominent 
figures in the history of the discovery of America, they seem to 
stand in parallel yet contrasting attitudes with Prince Henry 
the Navigator and Christopher Columbus the discoverer. Their 
reign was in many respects the most glorious and the most re- 
markable in the history of Spain. Their crowns were only united 
by marriage, each retaining a separate and yet a co-ordinate sov- 
ereignty. They could act for their respective kingdoms inde- 
pendently of each other ; each had a separate exchequer and a 
separate council ; and yet all the acts of sovereignty were their 
joint acts ; they both joined in signing royal documents ; the 
coin of the country bore the images of both ; and the arms of 
Aragon and Castile were united on the royal seal. Such, how- 
ever, was the independence of the one from the other, that it 
was almost entirely the separate glory of Isabella that Columbus 
was enabled to discover the new world. Ferdinand was rather 
an impediment, and even when a new world was placed at his 
feet he was not grateful. 

Ferdinand's character was set off by many lights and shadows, 
and it seems strange how so many good and bad qualities could 
be united in the same person. He was fortunate to a marvel- 
lous degree, inheriting Aragon, acquiring Castile by marriage, 
seizing Navarre on the excommunication of its sovereigns, taking 
Granada and Naples by conquest, reducing by his arms Tunis, 
Tripoli, Algiers, and most of the Barbary States, and making 
them vassals of his throne. His extraordinary fortunes were 
crowned by having a beautiful and accomplished queen for his 
wife, and in having a new world placed at his command with 
little effort, sympathy, or expenditure on his part. He was a 



Fiske's "Discovery of America." vol. i., pp. 399, 410. 



82 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

man of deep and uniform, though perhaps not always consistent 
religious faith and zeal ; he prosecuted with success the conquest 
of the Moors in Spain and added their countr}' to his crown, and 
expelled the Jews from his dominions. He was rewarded by 
Pope Innocent VIII. with the title of Most Catholic Majesty. 
But Ferdinand was selfish, intolerant, grasping, wily, ungrateful,, 
and, when his interests were involved, unscrupulous. 

The character of Isabella was a model of moral, intellectual, 
religious, and queenly symmetry. Beautiful in person, graceful 
in movement, and benignant in every expression, she possessed 
a tender heart, a quick and expansive intellect, a generous nature, 
and a pure and upright conscience. She surpassed in judgment 
and intellect her more astute consort ; she had more genius than 
he, and on many occasions exhibited greater firmness and in- 
trepidity. He was subtle and calculating ; she was gifted with 
higher genius and with a truer and more noble nature. Saintly 
in her life and devotions, she was wholly free from intolerance. 
She opposed the expulsion of the Jews, tempered the treatment 
of the subjugated Moors with mercy, hated slavery and oppres- 
sion of every kind, was simple and frugal in her private life while 
regal in her public administration ; she was fond of liberal and 
learned studies, and promoted the highest forms of education in 
her realm. While Ferdinand possessed the traits of a successful 
politician, Isabella possessed many of the masculine and sterner 
qualities that fitted her for a ruler and a conqueror, without 
losing an iota of the graceful and tender virtues that adorn pre- 
eminently the character of woman. While her reign would have 
been even more glorious without a Ferdinand, his career would 
have been less commendable without an Isabella. It was fortu- 
nate for Columbus, for the cause of human development and 
civilization, and for the sake of the teeming nations now inhabit- 
ing the new world, that by the duke's letter of commendation 
the cause of Columbus was placed under the generous and en- 
lightened patronage of the illustrious Isabella, rather than sub- 
jected to the cold and selfish scrutiny of Ferdinand. As it was, 
the cause was lost so far as his calculating and short-sighted 
policy could crush it, as it was only saved by the personal gener- 
osity of the noble queen. 

On his arrival at Cordova, Columbus found the sovereigns, the 
court, the army and the nation all absorbed in the war against 



ON COLUMBUS. 83 

the Moors. It was a turning-point in the war. The two rival 
Moorish kings of Granada, Muley Boabdil, the uncle, and 
Mohammed Boabdil, the nephew, had become reconciled, and 
had united their strength for a last struggle against the combined 
forces of Aragon and Castile. The court, resembling more a 
military encampment, the nobles and grandees of Spain, the 
chivalry of Aragon and Castile, and all the military forces of the 
nation were assembled, and the busy and ceaseless din of war 
resounded on all sides. The king and queen prosecuted the war 
in person, and moved from one point to another to meet the 
exigencies of the campaign. At one moment siege had to be 
laid to the Moorish city of Loxa ; the siege of Moclin followed ; 
and scarcely had the sovereigns time to make their thanksgiving 
for these victories at Cordova, when they had to hasten to 
Galicia to quell the rebellion of the Count de Lemos. In the 
mean time, Columbus at Cordova was the guest of Alonzo de 
Quintanilla, the comptroller of the Treasury of Castile. In the 
winter of 1484-85, the court having temporarily established itself 
at Salamanca, Columbus followed thither. He had not yet had 
an audience. During his tedious sojourn at Cordova he had 
made earnest converts to his cause of his generous host, Quin- 
tanilla, and qi the Papal Nuncio, Antonio Geraldini, and of 
his brother Alexander, the latter being tutor to the royal chil- 
dren. 

At Salamanca Columbus, through the influence of his friend, 
Quintanilla, was introduced to His Eminence Cardinal Pedro 
Gonzales de Mendoza, Archbishop of Toledo, who occupied so 
important and influential a position at court that Peter Martyr 
used to call him " the third King of Spain." This learned and 
noble- hearted ecclesiastic at first hesitated about countenancing 
one whose theories as to the form of the earth seemed to him to 
contradict the accounts of the sacred Scriptures ; explanations 
of the theory of Columbus followed, and the intelligent mind of 
the cardinal soon perceived and acknowledged that no truths of 
science or of actual discovery could militate against the truths 
of religion, for all truth is one and harmonious. He received 
Columbus, who, knowing the importance of such an audience, 
exerted his best abilities and most thorough efforts to convince 
his illustrious hearer of the truth of his theories, and he suc- 
ceeded. Admiring the learning, the simplicity, and frankness of 



84 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

Columbus, as well as his great and self-conscious dignity and 
lofty bearing, the cardinal secured for him an audience at court. 
Appearing before the astute and discriminating Ferdinand, for 
it seems in doubt and improbable that the queen was present, 
Columbus with modesty, self-possession, eloquence, and zeal 
stated and explained his propositions to the king, who was evi- 
dently impressed by his scientific and practical views, by the 
immense advantages he would gain over other nations by such 
an enterprise crowned with success, and especially over his rival, 
Portugal. Ferdinand, however, was too cautious to commit 
himself ; but the first step was gained by the king's ordering 
Fernando de Talavera, Prior of the Monastery of Prado, a man 
of great learning, but one who had no special knowledge of the 
scientific studies connected with the enterprise of Columbus, to 
call together the most accomplished and learned astronomers and 
cosmographers of the kingdom, with the intention of sifting the 
matter, and more especially of interrogating Columbus on the 
foundations and reasons for his theories and plans. This learned 
Junto was to report to the king. Columbus repaired to Sala- 
manca, by the professors of whose famous university his theories, 
proofs, and propositions were to be examined. At Salamanca 
he became the guest of the Dominican Convent of St. Stephen, 
a part of the university. The Junto was composed of professors 
of astronomy, geography, mathematics, and of other sciences, 
besides whom there were present as members of the council 
several high ecclesiastics and erudite friars. The time when this 
famous conference was held was probably the winter of 1486-87. 
It is difificult for us, after four hundred years, and under such 
different circumstances of time, place, country, institutions, and 
ideas, to comprehend the almost appalling difficulties under which 
Columbus appeared before this august body to plead the cause 
of a new world. Confirmed prejudices against all that was new, 
the pedantry of learning, the power of place, the timidity of 
conscientious pastors, confessors, and theologians lest some dan- 
ger of disturbing the faith of the flock or of the schools might oc- 
cur, the national distrust of foreigners, the disposition of placemen 
to regard a man in his poor circumstances and with his startling 
propositions as a visionary, an adventurer, a mendicant, if not 
even a lunatic — all these and many other disturbing and dis- 
heartening sentiments and influences stood in the way of Colum- 



ON COLUMBUS. 8$ 

bus. Under such adverse circumstances Columbus appeared 
before the learned Junto at Salamanca with a calm and confident 
mien ; his manner and address were courteous and reverential, 
his mind was clear and full of conviction, the resources of argu- 
ment, science, learned tradition, and many years of study were 
ready at his command ; his bearing was dignified, lofty, and 
conscious of truth and justice ; he felt and expressed the inspira- 
tion of his vocation. He felt that he had carried his appeal from 
ignorant and capricious public opinion to the candor and dis- 
crimination of a learned and dignified body ; from the rabble, 
that had jeered at and had ridiculed him, to the erudite and 
responsible representatives of the Spanish crown and of the 
educated and devout world. Yet this learned assembly piteously 
fell below the standard of their own fame and pretensions. With 
the exception of the good and learned friars of St. Stephen's 
Convent, the most learned body in the far-famed University of 
Salamanca, who paid deep attention to Columbus from the 
beginning, these dignified officials and shallow scholars prejudged 
his cause and his scientific problems and propositions. It seemed 
absurd that an obscure mariner should know and be able to do 
more than all the world beside had known and done for so many 
centuries. Passages from the sacred Scriptures and from the 
Fathers of the Church were quoted and wrested to the refutation 
of purely scientific propositions. Then, entering upon the dis- 
cussion on scientific grounds, the ignorance and errors of ages 
were adhered to, rather than the new light of advancing knowl- 
edge and science ; the existence of the antipodes was regarded 
as absurd ; the earth was argued to be flat and not round ; even 
if an opposite and habitable hemisphere existed, it would be 
impossible to reach it or return, in consequence of the unendur- 
able heats of the torrid zone ; or if this were not so, the circum- 
ference of the earth must be so great as to require three years 
at least to reach the other hemisphere, and all attempting it must 
perish of hunger and cold ; that only the Northern Hemisphere 
was habitable, and the heavens did not extend beyond it ; that 
all else was chaos ; and that, even if vessels should succeed in 
sailing down the route to India, it would be impossible for them 
to sail up again to Europe, as the rotundity of the earth would 
present a mountain-like barrier, which the most favorable winds 
would never enable them to surmount. 



86 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

Columbus, in face of such unexpected methods of considering 
a scientific proposition, rose to the full strength and dignity of 
his mission. The contrast between traditional and learned igno- 
rance, on the one hand, and the advanced theories of modern and 
awakening science, on the other, was presented. There was an 
immense gulf between them. Columbus broke down the bar- 
riers, and the human intellect expanded to receive the new results 
of actual demonstration. The attitude, the bearing, and the 
answer of Columbus to his opponents in the council are described 
by his contemporaries as having been impressive. With remark- 
able clearness he argued that the passages from the sacred writ- 
ings did not profess to use scientific or technical language, but 
rather aimed at reaching the human mind by the figurative lan- 
guage of the current age and country ; the Fathers of the 
Church, also, he demonstrated, were writing devout commen- 
taries, and in illustrating them merely used such scientific views 
and facts as then prevailed or were possessed by the world. 
But even here he was superior to his opponents in their own 
field of scriptural inquiry and sacred lore, for, taking them on 
their own grounds, he quoted those renowned and startling pas- 
sages of the Scriptures, those mystic prophecies of the inspired 
prophets of old, which he, in his devout zeal, construed as pro- 
phetic and typical of the grand results he aimed at, and of the 
man himself, who, as he believed himself to be, was destined to 
accomplish them. In appealing to the writings of the ancient 
philosophers of Greece and Rome, the opponents of his problems 
and plans found in Columbus an over-match, for he was familiar 
with them, and he was able to show a wonderful consensus of 
ancient authors in favor of his views as to the size, contour, and 
shape of the earth and the ocean. As to the torrid zone being 
impassable, he assured them, from what he saw in his voyage to 
St. George la Mina, in Guinea, which was near the equator, 
that the torrid zone was inhabitable and traversable ; that it pos- 
sessed a teeming population, and was rich in the productions of 
the animal and vegetable kingdoms. As to a ship's inability to 
overcome the rotundity of the earth, his own voyage to Iceland 
and back, and the expeditions of the Spanish and Portuguese 
navigators between the ports of Spain and Portugal and the 
islands far south on the African coast, demonstrated the absurdity 
of the objection. In this contest of the intellect Columbus stood 



ON COLUMBUS. 8/ 

forth inevitably victorious on all points in reality, for scientific 
and actual truth were on his side. His answers made a profound 
impression on many of his hearers. Among those convinced of 
the truth of his propositions and converted to his cause was 
Diego de Deza, a good and learned friar of St. Stephen, after- 
ward Archbishop of Seville ; but Fernando de Talavera, who 
was charged with conducting the investigation, was indifferent, 
too much absorbed in pressing public interests, in the war against 
the Moors, or other official cares, to give much countenance to 
what seemed an abstract and visionary scheme. The learned 
Junto, with some few illustrious exceptions, was still uncon- 
vinced. The majority was against the plan. Some further con- 
ferences were held, but no result was attained. Mr. Winsor, 
with his usual scepticism, attributes but little importance to the 
conference at Salamanca, alleging that it was held with Talavera 
and a few councillors, and that it was in no way associated with 
the prestige of the University of Salamanca.* 

In the mean time, the Moorish war was prosecuted with great 
activity. In the spring of 1487 the court returned from Sala- 
manca to Cordova ; the campaign against Malaga followed ; the 
war was conducted in a rugged and mountainous country, and 
through various vicissitudes the city of Malaga was forced to 
surrender on August i8th, 1487. Columbus followed the court 
and army, and was several times summoned before the sovereigns 
in intervals of warlike struggle, or during the comparativ^e leisure 
of a long siege, to explain again and again his plans ; but each 
time disappointment and postponement awaited him. Returning 
to Cordova after the surrender of Malaga, the hopes of Columbus 
for a more patient hearing were again blasted, for the court and 
its retinues were almost immediately driven away from the city 
by the outbreak of a pestilence, and from Cordova to Saragossa ; 
then in another campaign in Murcia, then at Valladolid, and next 
at Medino del Campo. Nearly a year thus passed — a year of 
•cruel delays and disappointments to Columbus. During its shift- 
ing scenes, arduous marches, and many perils, Columbus fol- 
lowed up his suit at this ever-migratory court with zeal and per- 
severance, and thus encountered the hardships of war in the 
pursuit of a scientific enterprise. His patience, however, was 



* Winsor's " Columbus," pp. 161, 162. 



88 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

severely tried. While expounding his proposals in Spain, he 
had been cautious in not imparting enough of his plans to enable 
any treacherous adversary, if there should be one at hand, to 
attempt to defraud him of his glory, as was done in Portugal. 

While Columbus was baffled in Spain by the delays and the 
uncandid pretensions of King Ferdinand, Portugal had made a 
noted and proud advance toward discovering the African route 
to Asia. Ferdinand did not yet trust in the Atlantic or western 
route, and yet he kept the inventor of it fruitlessly hanging 
around the wandering and warlike court. It is a singular fact 
that Bartholomew, the brother of Columbus, had taken part in 
the Portuguese expedition, which resulted in the discovery of 
the Cape of Good Hope, under Diaz, and in December, 1487, 
he had returned to Lisbon with the electrifying news. It is 
supposed by some that Columbus had now become so disgusted 
with Spanish delays, that early in 1488 he thought of again open- 
ing negotiations with the King of Portugal, John II., and went to 
Lisbon for that purpose ; he had asked for and obtained a safe con- 
duct from that sovereign, and left Spain. Other accounts repre- 
sent him as going to Lisbon toward the last of the summer, for 
the purpose of meeting Bartholomew and of sending him to Eng- 
land to open negotiations with Henry VII. He went to Lisbon, 
however, at this time under King John's safe conduct, which 
was dated March 20th, 1488. Probably the Portuguese king, in 
giving him so full a protection, which it is supposed was also 
intended as an assurance against the interference of creditors 
with Columbus, who had been so absorbed in his great project as 
to neglect his private affairs, had in view the renewal of negotia- 
tions for an arrangement with Columbus for his proposed west- 
ward voyage of discovery. But this was not practicable ; or at 
least Columbus did not entertain such proposals for his once re- 
jected and attempted-to-be-stolen plans, or did not tarry for them, 
for he was back again in Spain in May, 1489. 

Bartholomew Columbus, the ever-faithful brother and sup- 
porter of the admiral, a man of no mean ability, whether with 
the pen or the sword, for he was at once a good map-drawer, 
sailor, and soldier, was sent out to open negotiations with Eng- 
land and France. Directing his course first to Bristol, where he 
had many acquaintances of his seafaring life, and captured on 
the way by pirates, he finally arrived at London undaunted and 



ON COLUMBUS. 89 

well equipped for his brother's cause. At the court of Henry 
VII. he made a deep impression by his arguments and facts upon 
the mind of the king, especially with the assistance of a map of 
his own skilful workmanship. While the Enghsh monarch fully 
appreciated the scheme, he did not feel inclined hastily to embark 
in so remote an enterprise, and Bartholomew went to France. 
At the court of Charles VIII. he had an influential friend in 
Madame de Bourbon, a sister of the king ; but now again his 
cause was slow of success, and he resorted to his occupation of 
Lisbon in making geographical maps, chiefly for the members of 
the court. In the mean time, Henry VII., probably stimulated 
by the advancing prospects of Columbus in Spain, came to a 
favorable conclusion in the spring of 1492. The next meeting 
between the two brothers, Christopher and Bartholomew, as to 
the circumstances of time, place, and results, as I shall mention 
hereafter, was interesting and historically dramatic* 

Mr, Irving, in relating this portion of Columbus's life, states 
that, wearied and discouraged by delays in Spain, he was 
thinking of looking elsewhere for the aid he had sought in vain 
from Ferdinand, and that he applied to John II. of Portugal, 
and received in reply encouragement and the safe conduct. He 
also states that Columbus received a letter from Henry VII. of 
England, inviting him to that countr}', and holding out promises 
of encouragement.f Though he does not give the source of this 
information, this correspondence may have quickened his efforts 
and those of Bartholomew in the direction of England and France. 
It also stimulated the wary and selfish Ferdinand, who summoned 
him again to court and provided him with means for his journey 
through Gonzalez, the royal treasurer. But he again resorted 
to his former system of delays, and it was not until Bartholo- 
mew's departure for England and Columbus's return from Por- 
tugal, in the spring of 1489, that he summoned Columbus to 
appear before another learned council at Seville, and again made 
royal provision for his travel ; his expenses on the way and his 
entertainment at Seville were provided for him out of the public 
treasury. He repaired to the beautiful city flushed with hope ; 
but, alas ! another disappointment followed, another campaign 



* "The Discovery of America," by John Fiske, vol. i., pp. 401-408. 
t Washington Irving's " Life of Columbus," vol. i., pp. 95, 96. 



90 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

commenced. The court and army departed to invade Granada, 
besiege the city of Baza, and crush the Moors in their strong- 
hold. Columbus, however, was not inactive. He served in this 
eventful campaign as a soldier " with distinguished valor," and 
on December 22d, 1489, he was present on that august occasion 
when Boabdil the Elder surrendered his own crown and his 
remaining possessions to Ferdinand and Isabella.^ It was also 
during this campaign that the devout mind of Columbus con- 
ceived the thought and made the resolution — a vow registered in 
his own soul and openly declared — of devoting the profits of his 
projected discoveries, in case of success, to the expenses of an- 
other crusade for the rescue of the Holy Land and the sacred 
places from the hands of the infidels. This occurred during the 
siege of Baza, in Granada, and during the campaign of 1489, in 
which Columbus fought in the army of Ferdinand and Isabella 
with such intrepid personal valor as to have won the meed of a 
distinguished mention in the history of the war. Two venerable 
monks from the convent at the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem 
arrived, bringing a message from the Grand Soldan of Egypt 
that he had resolved to massacre the Christians of Palestine, 
destroy the Holy Sepulchre, and devastate their convents and 
churches unless Ferdinand and Isabella discontinued the war 
against the Moors. The holy friars received immediate audience 
with the Catholic sovereigns ; the court and the army and all 
Spain were deeply excited at the threat ; the war was prosecuted 
with renewed vigor, until the last inch of Moorish territory in 
Spain was surrendered. Isabella granted a perpetual annuity of 
one thousand ducats, equal to $4269 of our currency, for the 
support of the convent at the Holy Sepulchre, and sent an em- 
broidered veil, the work of her own hands, to be suspended 
before the sacred shrine. The big heart and munificent soul of 
Columbus then consecrated to a new crusade he would inaugu- 
rate for the rescue of the holy places Ihe profits of the princedom 
he felt sure of winning, and which he afterward won, but which 
the ingratitude of princes rendered barren in his hands and those 
of his family. 

But the suit of Columbus was again postponed in the interests 



* Irving's " Life of Columbus," vol. i., p. 97 ; Diego Ortiz de Zuniga, " Ann. de 
Sevilla," lib. xii., anno 14S9, p. 404. 



ON COLUMBUS. 9I 

of the Moorish war. The victorious sovereigns, returning from 
the surrender of Baza, entered Seville in triumph and with ex- 
traordinary pomp and grandeur in February, 1490. The national 
rejoicings ensued, and then came the preparations for the nuptials, 
and their celebration in April, of the Princess Isabella with 
Prince Don Alonzo, heir-apparent of Portugal. The stirring 
and exciting events of battles, triumphs, and wedding rejoicings 
stood in the way of Columbus now, and while the discoverer 
stood ready to reveal the reality of his long-dreamed plans, and 
followed the court as a member of the royal suite, his heart felt 
at every moment the pangs of bitter disappointment. What 
next ? Then came the campaign for the conquest of the Vega 
of Granada, and it was announced that neither sovereign nor 
soldier would rest from battle until Granada was theirs. Colum- 
bus saw his life waning with the passing years of toil, delay, broken 
promises, disappointment, and neglect. He resolved to brook 
no further postponement of his cause ; he insisted upon a decision 
of his suit. Bishop Fernando de Talavera was directed by the 
sovereigns to hold a decisive consultation of the sages of Sala- 
manca, and after some further delay the answer was given that 
this learned Junto regarded the project as " vain, impracticable, 
and resting on grounds too weak to merit the support of the 
government."* Columbus was informed through the bishop 
that, in consequence of the engrossing prosecution of the war and 
its great expense, the sovereigns could not then entertain his 
propositions, but that when the war was successfully ended they 
would feel disposed, with more time at their disposal, to negotiate 
with him. In the mean time, at court, in the army, and in the 
cities where he tarried, he was mocked and jeered at by the 
ignorant and the giddy, and when he passed through the streets 
the children meeting him sneeringly pointed to their foreheads 
to indicate that he was regarded as a man of unsound mind. 
During portions of this time he provided for his support by 
making maps. Six years were thus lost in fruitless petitions to 
the Spanish court. While he had assurances from individual 
members of the Junto of Salamanca — Diego de Deza, tutor of 
Prince Juan, and others — of their confidence and support, he not- 



* Fernando Colon, " Historia del Almirante," cap. 2 ; Prescott's " Ferdinand and 
Isabella," vol. iii., p. 121 ; Irving's " Life of Columbus," vol. i., p. 100. 



92 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 



withstanding regarded the answer of the sovereigns as final, and 
he indignantly left Seville and turned his face toward France^ 
from which country he had received a letter from King Charles 
VIII. inviting him to come to France and lay his project before 
that monarch. 

We next find the illustrious discoverer standing at the gates 
of the Franciscan Convent of La Rabida. According to Mr. 
Irving, this was Columbus's first and only visit to La Rabida ; 
according to Tarducci, it was his second visit, before the signing 
of the capitulations. Traveling on foot, holding his young son 
Diego by the hand, he asked the porter at the lodge for a little 
bread and water for the exhausted child. With the great man 
the heart alone was wear}'. He had traveled thus from Seville ; 
the stranger was poorly but genteelly dressed, but there was 
something noble and exalted in his aspect and demeanor. Ac- 
cording to the account of Tarducci, his son Diego was left at 
Columbus's first visit as a guest of the convent, and his inten- 
tion now was to take him to Cordova and leave him there 
with his second son, Fernando, in the care of Beatrix Enriquez. 
He regarded it as a providence that directed his steps to the en- 
lightened prior of the convent, Juan Perez de Marchena, for 
the good monk immediately entered into conversation with the 
strangers, and although Columbus was on his way to the neigh- 
boring town of Huelva, to visit his sister-in-law, and, according 
to other accounts, leave with her his young son Diego during 
his proposed visit to France, the good prior succeeded in induc- 
ing him to tarry at the convent and become its guest. The 
intelligent prior and friars of La Rabida had never received at 
their hospitable board so remarkable and extraordinary a guest. 
They became intensely interested in his theories and projects,, 
for Columbus spoke of nothing else, and as their proximity to the 
seaport of Palos had given the monks some familiarity with 
maritime subjects, they stood astonished at the magnificence and 
grandeur of the proposals of the Genoese stranger. They be- 
came still more surprised if not convinced by the arguments and 
facts, scientific data and traditional learning by which he sus- 
tained his propositions. They were edified by the deep religious 
convictions and boundless zeal for the faith manifested by their 
guest. The physician of the convent, Garcia Fernandez, one of 
the most scientific men of the neighboring maritime town of 



ON COLUMBUS. 93 

Palos, was sent for, and a number of conferences were held at 
the convent, and these were also attended by several " ancient 
mariners" of Palos, among whom was Martin Alonzo Pinzon — 
the Pinzons being a prominent, wealthy, and nautical family of 
standing and experience. The plans and arguments of Columbus 
had more effect among the well-informed and practical mariners 
and scientific men of Palos than among the sages of Salamanca's 
famed university. Pinzon was so especially impressed with the 
plan that he tendered his means and his personal services in such 
an expedition as Columbus proposed, and offered to bear the 
cost of another effort to engage the co-operation of the court of 
Spain. There was no dissenting voice in the councils of La 
Rabida. 

The good prior, Juan Perez, who had formerly been confessor 
to Queen Isabella, resolved to make a direct appeal to her, for 
she had from the beginning been favorable to the plans of Colum- 
bus, and he immediately sent to her Majesty a letter by a trusty 
and shrewd messenger, Sebastian Rodriguez, a pilot of Lepe, a 
man of intelligence and of importance in the neighborhood. In 
fourteen days Rodriguez returned with the queen's answer, in 
which she expressed her thanks for the prior's opportune exer- 
tions, and requested him to give hope to Columbus, and that the 
prior would immediately visit her at court. Juan Perez without 
delay saddled his mule, started before midnight, and, having 
traversed the conquered territories of the Moors and arrived at 
the new city of Santa Fe, where the king and queen were press- 
ing the siege of Granada, he found no difficulty in obtaining a 
prompt audience. He now pleaded the cause of Columbus with 
zeal, eloquence, and learning, and he gave his personal assur- 
ances of the integrity, skill, and knowledge of Columbus, and of 
his capacity to fulfil his every engagement ; he also gave an 
intelligent exposition of the grounds upon which the propositions 
were based, and depicted in glowing words the advantages and 
glory which Spain would gain by such an enterprise, of the suc- 
cess of which he felt confident. The Marchioness de Moya, a 
favorite of the queen, united her gentle and persuasive eloquence 
to the strong appeal of the prior, and the result was that Isabella 
requested Columbus again to repair to her presence, and for- 
warded to him a sum of money, equal to $216 of our currency, to 
bear the expenses of the journey and enable him to make a suit- 



94 ^LD AND NEW LIGHTS 

able appearance at court. Columbus replaced his worn garments, 
with a court suit, and, having purchased a mule, journeyed at 
once to the royal camp before the besieged city of Granada. 

Amid the triumphs and rejoicings of the Spanish arms before 
the ill-fated city of Granada, the last stronghold of the Moors, 
Columbus arrived at court. In his former applications he was 
put off by the press of warlike preparations and active operations 
in field or siege ; now at least the war was over. He had wit- 
nessed the surrender by Boabdil, the last of the Moorish kings, 
of the keys of the Alhambra to Ferdinand and Isabella, and the 
crusade of eight centuries was triumphantly brought to an end. 
In the midst of national rejoicings, wherein the court, the army and 
the people abandoned themselves to unbounded jubilation ; amid 
the songs of minstrels, the shouts of victory, the hymns of thanks- 
giving, military and religious pageants, the frequent appearance 
of king and queen in public surrounded by more than imperial 
magnificence, the throngs of grandees, warriors, and ecclesias- 
tics of dignity and station, the glitter of arms, and the sounds of 
music and clangor of arms — all tended to thrust aside the long- 
seeking and long-waiting discoverer of worlds. Columbus 
counted among his friends and the advocates of his cause the 
good prior of La Rabida, Juan Perez, Alonzo de Quintanilla, the 
accountant-general, the Marchioness de Moya, and Luis de 
Santangel, the receiver of ecclesiastical revenues. Now again 
he had to wait until a moment of comparative quiet enabled him 
to gain an audience. Clemencin, a contemporary writer, and 
one who saw him now at court, no doubt reflected the general 
sentiment of the community when he described Columbus as an 
obscure and unknown man following the court, one of numerous 
importunate applicants brooding in antechambers over the vain- 
glorious project of discovering a world, melancholy and indiffer- 
ent in the midst of the national and universal rejoicings, con- 
temptuous of all glory except his own anticipated triumphs, 
dejected yet puffed up. To the few friends I have named he 
appeared as the seer, the scientist, the deliverer of nations, the 
benefactor of Spain and of the world, the hero of hemispheres. 
The sovereigns now appointed several persons of rank and influ- 
ence to negotiate with Columbus, and among them was Fernando 
de Talavera, then promoted as Archbishop of Granada. Colum- 
bus entered upon the negotiations of the terms with the air of 



ON COLUMBUS. 95 

one confident of success ; but when these dignitaries of Church 
and State, noblemen and officials, heard the obscure stranger 
demand as the price of his success terms that were princely— a 
viceroyalty of all the lands he discovered and a tenth of the 
gains, whether from trade or conquest — they were filled with 
indignation mingled with contempt. Columbus was unmoved, 
and when sneered at for his spirit of self-aggrandizement, he 
boldly offered, relying on Pinzon's proposition, to defray one 
eighth of the expense on his being guaranteed one eighth of the 
profits. Notwithstanding this confident and liberal offer, the 
terms insisted on by Columbus were regarded as extravagant, 
presumptuous, and vainglorious. The report of Fernando de 
Talavera to the queen represented the terms as exorbitant, and 
that it would be beneath the dignity of the crown to bestow such 
dignities, powers, and emoluments upon any one, but especially 
upon a stranger without means, titles, or prestige, one who, it 
was well known, was regarded as a dreamer and an adventurer. 
Isabella had commenced to feel great inclination to favor the 
proposals of Columbus, but this report of so important a person- 
age as the Archbishop of Granada, her confessor and spiritual 
adviser, the one who had been from the beginning entrusted 
with the conduct of the affair, caused her to hesitate. Lesser 
terms were proposed to Columbus, but he remained immovable, 
even with the prospect of utter failure or of undergoing at other 
courts the delays, neglects, ridicule, and disappointments he had 
already experienced for eighteen years, the best portion of his 
life and manhood. His lofty and confident spirit should now 
have inspired more respect if not admiration, but he was per- 
mitted to depart from Santa Fe, and he now turned his face 
toward France. Well might Mr. Irving exclaim, while al'-ading 
to the long years of solicitation and denial he had spent at Euro- 
pean courts, " What poverty, neglect, ridicule, contumely, and 
disappointment had he not suffered !" It was in Februarj^ 1492, 
that this illustrious man, after having taken leave of his few 
friends at court, mounted his mule and wended his weary way 
toward Cordova. The noble Luis de Santangel and other 
friends of Columbus, actuated by the loftiest and most patriotic 
sentiments, resolved to make a final effort to prevent France 
from wresting from Spain the glory of the impending discovery. 
He and Alonzo de Quintanilla hastened to the queen and obtained 



96 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

an immediate audience. They appealed to her by every con- 
sideration of patriotism, glory, interest, and justice not to let 
Columbus carry to France the honor of discovering new worlds, 
which had been so unwisely rejected by Spain, and in their 
ardor for the cause they mingled the highest eulogies on Colum- 
bus, with almost reproaches on their own sovereigns. The ex- 
pedition would only require two vessels and about three thou- 
sand crowns, and the great discoverer had generously proposed 
to bear one eighth of the cost. The Marchioness de Moya was 
present at this momentous interview, and warmly and eloquently 
supported the fervid appeals of Santangel and of Quintanilla. 
The mind of Isabella had been so engrossed with the Moorish 
war and other cares of State, that the proposals of Columbus 
seemed now for the first time to dawn upon her generous spirit 
in all their grandeur and glory, and with characteristic spirit 
and judgment she resolved to embark in so exalted a work. The 
king was still indifferent and sat coldly by, his thoughts grovel- 
ling over his depleted treasury. Was Isabella now to displease 
her royal consort and subject the public treasury to a further drain, 
when he was opposed to it ? Her mind hesitated between the 
two views — a cold and calculating State policy, on the one hand, 
and the noblest of human undertakings, on the other. All pres- 
ent felt the crisis of the moment, but Isabella rose now to the 
full elevation of her exalted character, and with an inspired ardor 
she exclaimed : " I undertake the enterprise for my own crown 
of Castile, and will pledge my jewels to raise the necessary 
funds !" The boundless joy of Santangel, Quintanilla, and the 
Marchioness de Moya broke forth in expressions of gratitude 
and honor for the queen, whose illustrious career she had now 
crowned with the noblest act of her life. She seemed like the 
angel of intercession, whose wings extended over two hemi- 
spheres, to unite them in a common humanity and in one common 
faith. 

Columbus must be sent for at once and brought back to Santa 
Fe ; but in his generous zeal Santangel assured her Majesty that 
there was no need of pledging her jewels, as he would advance 
the requisite money. It was arranged, therefore, that San 
Angel, the receiver of ecclesiastical revenues, should advance 
the necessary funds, which were taken, in fact, from the treas- 
ury of Aragon, to the amount of seventeen thousand florins. 



ON COLUMBUS. 97 

This sum the king took care afterward to have reimbursed 
to him from a part of the first gold brought by Columbus from 
the islands he discovered in the West Indies, by having it ap- 
plied to gilding the vaults and ceilings of his own royal saloon 
in the grand palace of Saragossa, in Aragon. In the mean time, 
Columbus was pursuing his lonely and dejected journey from the 
court ; had crossed the Vega of Granada and reached the bridge 
of Pinos. He had traveled about two leagues from Granada ; 
the lofty mountains of Elvira were before him, and every spot 
was rendered historical by Spanish triumphs over the Moors; 
but they were associated in his mind with the causes of the de- 
lays and disappointments he had sustained for so many years. 
Here he was overtaken by a royal messenger at full speed, who 
requested his return to the court at Santa Fe, and assured him 
of the pledge the queen had made, and of her ardor in the cause 
he had so long pleaded in vain. Columbus hesitated ; he was 
reassured by the messenger ; and then, feeling unbounded con- 
fidence in the word of the noble Isabella, his heart filled with an 
unaccustomed joy. He hastened back to Santa Fe. When two 
such minds and souls as those of Columbus and Isabella came to 
understand each other and to act in accord, the civilized world 
had at once advanced more than it had done before for centuries. 
Man was now to become the master and ruler of the whole 
earth ; the shackles of ignorance, prejudice, and cowardice were 
to fall from the human race ; it was the proudest moment in the 
life of Isabella, the most hopeful in. that of Columbus, the most 
auspicious in the progress of the world ! 

Isabella received Columbus most graciously on his return to 
Santa Fe. Ferdinand was unable to resist longer the generous 
resolve of the queen, and he concurred in what he had failed to 
prevent ; but Isabella was the inspiring mover and supporter of 
this magnificent enterprise. The views of Columbus as to terms 
were already understood ; his terms were accepted and reduced 
to writing by the secretary of the queen, Juan de Coloma, and 
were substantially as follows. Talavera had said that " a beggar 
made conditions like a king to monarchs." Now the parties 
stood on more equal terms. All was now understood and stipu- 
lated between the contracting parties. First : Columbus was to 
be the admiral of the seas and countries he should discover dur- 
ing his own life, and the office should be hereditary in his family. 



gS OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

with dignities and honors equal to those enjoyed in his district 
by the high admiral of Castile. Second : He was to be viceroy 
and governor-general over the countries and islands, and invested 
with power of nominating three persons for the governorship of 
each island or province, from whose number the sovereigns were 
to select the incumbent. Third : He was to receive a share of 
all the pearls, precious stones, gold, silver, spices, and of all 
other articles and merchandise that might be found, gained, 
brought, or exported from the discovered countries. Fourth : 
He in his quahty as admiral, or his representative, was to be 
the sole judge in all mercantile matters, causes, and disputes 
arising between those countries and Spain, provided the high 
admiral of Spain possessed the like power in his district. Fifth : 
He should have the privilege of contributing one eighth of 
the cost of fitting out all ships to be engaged in the undertaking, 
and receiving one eighth of the profits in return. These terms 
were embodied in a written contract or capitulation signed by 
both Ferdinand and Isabella, written out by Almazon, and coun- 
tersigned by Coloma, the secretary, on April i/th, 1492, and they 
were also set forth in a letter of privilege signed by the sover- 
eigns, April 30th. In the latter document, not only were the 
titles and offices aforesaid made hereditary in his family, but also 
Columbus and his heirs were privileged to affix the title of Don 
to their names, which was in those days a rare distinction. 

It has already been observed that the Italian name of Colum^ 
bus was rendered Colombo, while the French, if it be true that 
he had French relatives, was Colomb, or Coloup. In Spain his 
name underwent decided changes. The Duke of Medina Celi 
called him Colomo, which was changed into Colom, which Tar- 
ducci supposes was changed into Colon for the sake of euphony ; 
but the admiral's son Fernando argued that as the Roman name 
was Colonus, that could easily be transformed into Colon. The 
signature to the contract with the Spanish sovereigns was quite 
Spanish, Cristoval Colon. Fernando says the admiral's object 
in changing his name in Spain was to distinguish his own im- 
mediate family and descendants from the collateral stock of the 
Italian Colombos. Oviedo calls him Colom. 

While Mr. Winsor thinks that Columbus failed in Portugal 
and again in Spain by his arrogant spirit and demands, and thus- 
also disgusted Talavcra by demanding in his poverty and ob-^ 



ON COLUMBUS. 



99 



scurity what could only be conceded to proved success, the 
answer is very complete with less unfriendly critics of the dis- 
coverer, that he finally succeeded in obtaining the concession of 
those very terms which at first seemed so arrogant ; and when 
made in the manner so distasteful to Mr. Winsor, they were 
always accompanied by solid and true arguments, based on his 
scientific data, and were never urged except in terms and manner 
of Columbus's acknowledged and uniform courtesy, forbearance, 
and precatory demeanor. His success justifies his conduct in 
this respect. Far more admirable than such criticism is the view 
which Columbus took, that he was the instrument of Providence 
for the achievement of a great mission. Such a spirit of criti- 
cism is never found united with that magnanimity of spirit which, 
in Columbus, before he unfurled a sail at Palos, had dedicated 
the expenditure of fortunes in the restoration of a Saviour's tomb 
to Christendom. 



CHAPTER V. 

" Love is life's end ; an end, but never ending ; 
All joys, all sweets, all happiness, awarding." 

—Spenser's " Britain's Ida." 

" Nothing shall assuage 
Your love but marriage ; for such is 
The tying of two in wedlock." 

— Lilly's "Sappho and Phaon." 

" For know, lago. 
But that I love the gentle Desdemona, 
I would not my unhoused free condition 
Put into circumscription and confine 
For the sea's worth." 

•Shakespeare's " Othello." 

We have accompanied Columbus in his journeys in pursuit of 
the Spanish court, and of audiences with King Ferdinand ; in his 
services as a soldier and his return, in the spring of 1487, with 
the court to Cordova. During his several sojourns at this beau- 
tiful and ancient city he had mingled in its social life. He 
had made influential friends in Spain, and among them were the 
powerful Dukes Medina Celi and Medina Sidonia ; Diego de 
Deza, the noble Dominican friar ; Alonzo de Quintanilla, who 
was comptroller of the treasury of Castile ; Antonio Geraldini, 
the papal nuncio, and his brother, Alexander Geraldini, who was 
tutor to the royal infants ; and, above all, Pedro Gonzales de 
Mendoza, Archbishop of Toledo and Grand Cardinal of Spain. 
He had been the guest of several of these illustrious Spaniards. 
It was, no doubt, through such powerful social influences, as 
well as by his own engaging manners, eloquence of speech, 
courtly appearance and address, his religious devotion and con- 
stancy in attendance at the solemn services of the Church in the 
venerable Cathedral of Cordova, his learning on rare and attrac- 
tive subjects, the very mystery and attraction that attaches 
always, with the refined and cultivated of every land and age, 
to aspiring thoughts and noble purposes, that gained for him the 



ON COLUMBUS. lOI • 

entree into the best society of Cordova, so noted for its nobility 
and aristocracy. Many of his friends were noted ecclesiastics, 
who, besides at that time holding the most important and influ- 
ential offices in the State, were mostly themselves members of 
the noblest families of Spain. It is no small tribute to the worth, 
purity, reputation, and ability of Columbus that he, a foreigner 
and a stranger, coming into Spain unintroduced and without a 
friend or acquaintance to start with, without means, but actually 
destitute and threadbare, either accepting the hospitality of some 
of his friends or making a scanty and precarious living b}'- draw- 
ing maps, should have won the friendship of such powerful 
friends and should have won recognition both in aristocratic 
circles and at court ; but such was undeniably the fact. His 
acquaintance with and reception by the noble and ancient family 
of the De Aranas, of Cordova, is proof of this. 

The Spanish court had come to Cordova in the spring of 
1487, and after the most stirring and determined preparations, 
had departed thence for a fearful campaign and siege of the 
impregnable Moorish stronghold at Malaga ; but Spanish prow- 
ess had already carried many a Moorish city of equal strength, 
and the doomed city of Malaga surrendered to Ferdinand and 
Isabella on August i8th, 1487. The court then returned in 
triumph to Cordova. Columbus followed the court back to that 
famous city. This brings us to the consideration of the question 
of his marriage to Beatrix Enriquez, which has become the sub- 
ject of so much criticism and difference of opinion. I have inves- 
tigated this controverted point with impartiality and research. 
My judgment at first was balanced ; but persevering stud}' has 
solved the question for me, and now, having a conviction, I shall 
advocate that conviction with my best efforts. 

It was during his second or third sojourn at Cordova, in the 
autumn of 1487, that the second marriage of Columbus took 
place, his second wife being Donna Beatrix Enriquez, a lady of 
surpassing beauty, most amiable disposition, and a member of 
one of the oldest and most influential of the noblest and most aris- 
tocratic families of Spain. Few Spanish families had a higher 
prestige than that of the de Aranas, to which Beatrix Enriquez 
belonged, though their wealth at this time did not correspond 
with their distinguished lineage and station. The marriage of 
Columbus to Beatrix Enriquez took place at Cordova toward the 



102 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

end of November, 1487, and Fernando Columbus, the only child 
of this union, was born on August 29th, or, as others state, 
August 15th, 1488. According to the customs of the countr3% 
as the Count de Lorgues informs us, and as she had brothers 
who alone could inherit the f!imily estates and titles, her mar- 
riage portion must have been limited to the usual legitime ; but 
he thinks it was such as to insure her an independent living. 

Little is known of this lady or of the influence she exerted 
on the admiral's fortunes, or of the part she took in his future 
struggles, successes, triumphs, and misfortunes. Her life was 
spent modestly at Cordova, and she is not known ever to have 
left that city. During his lifetime no man ever had more enemies, 
or such bitter and untiring maligners of his conduct and motives, 
or such industrious inquisitors into every act or step of his 
eventful career. The enemies who had carefully and maliciously 
brought forward ever}^ accusation against him which hatred and 
revenge could suggest, never once attacked the purity and 
integrity of his moral character; never was the legality of his 
connection with Beatrix Enriquez questioned ; never was his 
marriage to her doubted ; never was the legitimacy of his second 
son, Fernando, challenged. On the contrary, during his resi- 
dence in Cordova the associations of Columbus were of the most 
unexceptionable — nay, more, of the most distinguished character. 
He was a guest in the house of one of the queen's most trusted 
and honored officers, Alonzo de Quintanilla, the royal treasurer, 
and he was an associate of such distinguished prelates as Antonio 
Geraldini, the papal nuncio, and of his brother Alexander, whom 
the queen had selected as the tutor of her children. Columbus 
recognized on all occasions Fernando, the son of this marriage, 
as equal in all respects to his first son, Diego, and in his will, 
which is based upon the express principle that legitimacy of birth 
should be a prerequisite for inheriting his entailed estate, the 
Mayorazgo, the only preference given to his son Diego over his 
son Fernando is that in which the customs and laws of the State 
were followed, the right of primogeniture. This universal recog- 
nition of the validity of his second marriage, and of the legitimacy- 
of Fernando, was followed by historians and by an uninterrupted 
concurrence and acquiescence of one hundred and thirty years 
after the death of the admiral. 

It was not until 1672 that the question was raised for tlie first 



ON COLUMBUS. I03 

time, and this was a trivial and unauthorized one, as to the 
second marriage of Columbus or the legitimacy of his second 
son, Fernando. This question arose apparently in the most 
casual mannbr, and without thought or investigation on the part 
of the doubter, Nicolao Antonio, whose functions were rather 
those of a librarian than of an historian or critic, came across a 
copy of the admiral's will, in which a pension was provided for 
Beatrix Enriquez, " mother of his second son, Fernando." This 
clause of the will reads as follows : " And I desire him (Don 
Diego) to devise unto Beatrix Enriquez, mother of Don Fer- 
nando, my son, a sum which shall enable her to live in a suitable 
manner, as being one to whom I am much indebted. And let 
this be done for the relief of my conscience, for it weighs heavily 
on my soul. The reason of this it is not right to insert here." 
While Nicolao Antonio held the rather high-sounding title of 
Procurator-General of Spanish Affairs at the court of Rome, he 
is not known to history as either a jurist or lawyer or historian, 
and in his capacity of librarian he was more accustomed to 
handling the manufactured book than passing on its merits ; 
more versed in arranging, cataloguing, and billeting volumes 
than digesting or weighing their contents. The rashness and 
precipitancy of his action in this case have shown him to be 
a man of little prudence, discretion, or discrimination. Noticing 
in the above passage, in the admiral's will, the absence of the 
word wife in the allusion to Beatrix Enriquez, and the reference 
to some undisclosed circumstance in his past course of action 
toward her, the librarian rashly, yet perhaps artlessly and almost 
unconsciously, wrote down in the copy of the will Don Fer- 
nando Columbus was an illegitimate son of the admiral. 

This obscure note, made without comment, reason, or proof 
of any kind, and without any inquiry or research after the truth, 
made no impression upon the general belief that Columbus and 
Beatrix were lawfully married, nor upon the minds of historians 
and biographers, nor upon the fame and reputation of Columbus 
and his wife. It was too obscure and unauthentic an act to 
attract any notice. Its insignificance consigned it to oblivion. 
Revived now by modern authors, I have carefully and impartially 
examined the accusation, and have been forced to the conclusion 
that it is not sustained. 

One hundred and twenty years after the penning of this rash 



I04 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

thought of the librarian Nicolao Antonio — that is, about the year 
1794 — in order to promote his success in conducting a lawsuit 
in behalf of one Diego Colony Larriategui, in which he was inter- 
ested, the licentiate Luiz de la Palma y Freytas, true to the most 
inferior instincts and training of his profession as a lawyer, and 
knowing nothing of the merits of the question as one affecting an 
illustrious name, and not caring, availed himself of the assertion 
made by Antonio ; but his plea, based upon the illegitimacy of 
Fernando Columbus, was thrown out of court. Numerous law- 
suits arose from time to time over the succession to the estates 
and titles of Columbus, and remote kindred in Italy attempted 
to win the prize, even at the expense of historic truth. The 
parentage of Columbus, the place of his birth, and everv circum- 
stance bearing upon the question of the succession, became the 
subject of bitter contention and of contradictory testimony. 
What these cavilling and hair-splitting attorneys, who could not 
rise to the height of an honorable profession, were unable to 
accomplish was next attempted by a learned critic from motives 
of vanity and ambition. In 1805 Galeani Napione, a vain and 
frivolous writer, of some repute for learning, but unsuccessful as 
a historian, sought, in the mass of the documents brought into 
existence by the voluminous and conflicting lawsuits which had 
been prosecuted in Spain over the succession to the titles and 
estates of Columbus, for an opportunity of enhancing his reputa- 
tion as a commentator and critic. His eager eye fell upon the 
point forensically made by the lawyer, Palma y Freytas, in be- 
half of his client, and with equal astuteness he amplified the 
point by a series of keen and critical arguments, and thus gained 
some credit to himself as an original and discriminating critic. 
But what can be thought of the assumption of a writer who, 
contrary to all testimonies bearing upon the parentage and 
birth of Columbus, had insisted that the admiral was born at the 
Chateau of Cuccaro, in Montferrat ? Thus, too, in 1809, Francois 
Cancellieri, a French antiquarian and bibliographer, gave some 
circulation to Napione's arguments, by accepting the fact of Fer- 
nando Columbus's illegitimate birth, and reasserted it ; but 
although Cancellieri had won some repute for skill in collecting 
and classifying facts, he is known not to have made any examina- 
tion into the charge, thus confirming the general opinion of his con- 
temporaries that he was a man destitute of philosonliic acumen. 



ON COLUMBUS. " 105 

It is singular how much bitter feeling has been generated by 
the disputes over questions relating to Columbus. None of 
these controversies have equalled in bitterness the disputes over 
the questions of his birthplace and of his second marriage. An 
old Barnabite father, Spotorno, a Genoese, who felt a special 
pride in having Genoa recognized as the birthplace of Columbus, 
took offence, however, at the supposed effort of Fernando Colum- 
bus, in his history of the admiral, to cast doubt on the subject of 
his father's birthplace. He was unsparing in his denunciation 
of Fernando for daring to cast a doubt on the claim of Genoa. 
The imputation of Napione was eagerly seized upon by the 
enthusiastic Genoese for accusing Fernando of being a bastard. 
His resentment was aided by his vanity as a claimant to repute 
as a scholar, and it was his vanity which led him to ignore 
Napione, and trace his authority for the assertion back to Can- 
ceUieri, the French critic. Such was the heat of his passion 
and resentment for Fernando Columbus, that it led him to asperse 
the reputation of Columbus himself, whom he was proud to claim 
as a native countryman of his own. " His dislike of the son," 
writes Father Knight, " seems to have outweighed his respect 
for the father."* For his zeal in behalf of his own Genoa as the 
birthplace of Columbus that city rewarded him with honors. 
He was appointed by the city to write a preface to a collection 
of documents relative to Columbus. f This afforded him an 
opportunity of repeating in his preface, in 1823, the calumny 
against Fernando Columbus, and through him against his father, 
of the same unauthorized and unauthenticated libel which had, in 
1 8 19, been uttered in his book, " Of the Origin and of the Country 
of Columbus," and subsequently repeated in his " Literary His- 
tory of Liguria." The Count de Lorgues accuses the learned 
Barnabite of plagiarism, in claiming as his own an accusation 
which he had found in the pages of Napione and Cancellieri. 

One of the bitterest posthumous enemies of Columbus was 
Martin Fernandez de Navarrete. His hatred for Columbus 
arose out of his being the hired and paid advocate of the Spanish 
dynasty in defending King Ferdinand against the universally 
accepted charge of ingratitude to Columbus. Navarrete, fired 



* " The Life of Christopher Columbus," by Rev. Arthur George Knight, S. J. 
t " Codice Columbo Americano." 



Io6 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

by the resentment of a Spaniard and stimulated by official patron- 
age, undertook to defend Ferdinand from the charge of ingrati- 
tude toward Columbus, which had then been recently but briefly 
repeated by Bossi and his French translator. Nearly about the 
same time that Spotorno was accusing Columbus in Genoa, in 
the pay of the Genoese Government, 1823, Navarrete was en- 
gaged in the lucrative service of the Spanish Government in a 
similar unworthy crusade against the good name of Columbus. 
If Columbus was blameless, then King Ferdinand was guilty of 
ingratitude ; if Ferdinand was capable of defence, it could only 
be by casting odium on Columbus. Navarrete accepted his un- 
worthy task. The public purse was at his back. He was con- 
tinuing that great work, the " Collection of the Maritime Voy- 
ages of the Spaniards," which the learned Bautista Mufioz had 
commenced in the time and by order of Charles V. He was also 
employed by the Spanish crown to edit and compile the " Col- 
eccion Diplomatica. " Rewarded, or rather subsidized by the 
government, and loaded with many offices, honors, and emolu- 
ments, he became an enthusiastic eulogist of his royal client in 
the person of King Ferdinand. Yet in his unworthy task, "he 
undertook," as the Count de Lorgues so earnestly says, " the task 
of exculpating the most ungrateful by calumniating the most 
generous of men. Vengeance armed his pen. Yet in the w^hole 
course of his researches Navarrete could find nothing that could 
cast the least suspicion on the relations of Columbus with Beatrix 
Enriquez. All his annotations showed Fernando as the legiti- 
mate son of the admiral of the ocean." It was under such cir- 
cumstances as these that Navarrete revamped the often-made 
and as often-refuted charges of the contemporaneous enemies of 
Columbus, commencing with the accusation that he had left 
Portugal secretly in order to defraud his creditors, down to the 
charges of cruelty, avarice, and disloyalty. Navarrete thus 
ranges himself on the side of such desperate and unscrupulous 
men as Roldan and his fellow-rebels, and of the host of wild, 
vicious, desperate, criminal, and outlawed men who in his life- 
time united with Ferdinand in sending this most loyal and useful 
man to a death-bed of poverty, disease, misery, and injustice. 
With a mockery of historical style and dignity he undertakes to 
praise King Ferdinand for his clemency, graciousness, and kind- 
ness to Cokunbus. It is not surprising, then, that Navarrete 



ON COLUMBUS. lO/ 

should have appropriated the calumn}- of Spotorno with avidity, 
in order to increase the already swollen sum of his unjust charges 
against Columbus. " The calumny of Spotorno," writes the 
Count de Lorgues, " came to give him a new arm." The fact 
that Navarrete's work is, with all its learning and research, an 
unmanly and ungenerous indictment of the moral character of 
Columbus, a repetition of refuted charges made by his avowed 
enemies, overflowing with undisguised prejudice, and inspired 
by lucrative governmental patronage, deprives it of all authen- 
ticity when treating on the life, character, and merits of Colum- 
bus. 

It was unfortunate for the cause of truth and justice that our 
distinguished and learned countryman, Washington Irving, who, 
on being informed while at Bordeaux that Navarrete's work was 
in press, went to Madrid with the intention of translating it into 
English, and while at Madrid saw its issue from the press, should 
have mainly followed that author in preparing his own beautiful 
life of Columbus, in so far as to express the opinion that the rela- 
tions of Columbus with Donna Beatrix Enriquez were not sanc- 
tioned b}^ marriage. Differing on many important subjects from 
Spotorno and Navarrete, it seems to be a subject of regret that 
Mr. Irving, while rejecting parts of their accusations, mitigating 
others, and accepting still others with evident repugnance, should 
not have given himself ample time to investigate the charge of 
illicit relation with this lady, the mother of his second son, who 
in her own native city and for nearly two centuries stood with- 
out reproach, and would stand so to-day but for the overwrought 
criticism of a passage in the will of Columbus, thus casting a 
blemish upon the good names of two such persons at once, and 
a blot upon the birth of a third. Spotorno, emboldened by the 
admission of Mr. Irving, subsequently repeats the charge, while 
reproaching him with timidity in not admitting more ; and Hum- 
boldt, whose researches were in quite a different field from that 
to which the investigation of such a charge belongs, and without 
investigation of his own, follows Mr. Irving in accepting the 
accusation of illicit relations between Columbus and Beatrix. 

It must be admitted, however, that this investigation rests 
solely upon the original rash and inconsiderate note made by the 
librarian, Nicolao Antonio, on a copy of the will of Columbus. 
None of the writers who have followed this view have added 



I08 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

any testimony or evidence in support of it. In fact, the note of 
Antonio is solely his own conclusion or argument deduced from 
the obscure but not mysterious language of the will. The clause 
in question is in truth the only data upon which we have to consider 
the charge. The list of authors who have inconsiderately ac- 
cepted the charge as true, or rather as probable, constitute by 
derivation but one accuser, the librarian Antonio. The Count 
de Lorgues pithily presents the list, showing no increase or 
accumulation of authority or strength in the following climax, 
disclosing the genesis, so to speak, of this charge against a dis- 
tinguished name. That author says : " Here is the bibliographic 
filiation of this calumny : Humboldt derived it from Washington 
Irving ; Washington Irving derived it from Navarrete ; Navar- 
rete derived .it from Spotorno ; Spotorno derived it from Can- 
cellieri ; Cancellieri derived it from Napione ; Napione derived 
it from the Attorney Freytas ; Freytas derived it from the bibli- 
ographer Nicolao ; Nicolao derived it from his own dull brain."* 

As the accusation originated with the librarian Nicolao, and 
he rests it solely upon 'the circumstance and language of the will 
of Columbus, the question must be regarded as one depending 
solely upon these data and upon the construction to be given to 
the words. Upon these data we must determine whether his 
opinion, accepted by these authors, is warranted. The assertion 
of the librarian, made one hundred and sixty years after the 
admiral's death, gives no authority to the charge, which he was 
the first to make ; neither does the concurrence of the same 
writers, following his lead and having no additional data or evi- 
dence, give any authority to the charge as an historical question. 

Does the language of that quoted clause in the will establish 
or justify the fabrication of such a charge, or prove the fact 
charged ? Does a mere obscurity of language, intimating at 
most that Columbus felt that he had fallen short of his obligations 
to Beatrix, and should in some measure make a tardy reparation, 
justify a charge or prove a fact so utterly at variance with all 
the evidences tending to prove the contrary to be the case ? 
Would not the fact that Columbus, though lawfully married to 
Beatrix, had, under the pressure of his engrossing cares, labors,. 



* De Lorgues, " Ambassadeur de Dieu," p. 382 ; " Christophe Colomb," vol. i., p. 
44; " The Life of Columbus," by Father Arthur George Knight, p. 45. 



ON COLUMBUS. IO9 

and misfortunes, neglected to provide adequately for her since 
their marriage, or had not made her the partner of his successes 
and triumphs, have naturally called forth the same language and 
expressions in his will ? Would not any other grievance, which 
he might have felt he had inflicted on her, have naturally called 
forth the same expressions ? Is this interpretation, so hastily and 
rashly put upon the will of Columbus by the librarian, the only 
one of which the will is susceptible ? Is it consistent with the 
canons of interpretation or with the fair use of reason, one hun- 
dred and sixt}^ years after the date of it and after the events, to 
place upon these obscure words in a will a construction which 
is wholly contradicted by the entire life, character, professions, 
conduct, and principles of the person using the language, and of 
the person of whom it is written ? As the admiral expressly 
states that he withholds the reason for his inserting this clause 
in his will, was it reasonable, just, or fair in Antonio to attempt 
to supply what he purposely withheld, and that upon mere con- 
jecture, and at a distance of over a century and a half from his 
death ? Was it not the positively expressed effort of Columbus, 
in so wording his will, to withhold his reasons ? Then how 
could a man of such varied and educational experience in life, of 
such acknowledged intellect, of such lively sentiments and sensi- 
bilities, of such acute observation, of such eloquence and accuracy 
of language and expression from his youth, have so glaringly 
defeated his own purpose ? Would it not have obviously been 
more natural and sensible for Columbus to have declared the 
reasons ? If a blundering and dull hbrarian saw the meaning ot 
the language so plainly and so readily, could not the superior 
intellect of Columbus have perceived the same, at least after it 
was written ? Is it not more probable to find in the separation 
of Columbus from his wife, during his roving, adventurous and 
checkered career since their marriage, the reason for his lan- 
guage, rather than in the theory that two persons, known as they 
were to be devoted to each other and the parents of an honorable 
and noble son, were not married ? If, in his ambitious projects 
and struggles for glory, he had left the woman he loved, his 
wife, and the mother of his son in solitude, neglect, and ob- 
scurity, what more natural or appropriate language could he 
have used to give expression to his sorrow, and then to do her a 
tardy justice ? Is it probable, if the charge were true, that so 



no OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

sensitive a nature would have thus divulged it, even when de- 
signing to withhold it ? Is it possible that so capable a pen as 
that of Columbus would have so blundered as to express what it 
was designed to suppress ? In order to fasten so grave a charge 
upon Columbus, is it not necessary that the language he used 
should be utterly inconsistent with any other theory than the 
one contended for ? Is it not a principle of justice, common 
sense, and of law, in a doubtful case, based on circumstantial 
evidence, that in order to justify conviction of an offence, the 
facts proved, or the data relied upon, should be inconsistent 
with any other theory than that of guilt ? Surely the man, who 
suffered so much from the calumny of his enemies during his 
lifetime, should be reasonably spared from the breath of volun- 
tary censure after the lapse of centuries. Would the man so 
slandered and libelled by his enemies during his life have become 
his own accuser, and that, too, of a crime of which his worst 
enemies had never dared to accuse him ? 

Mr. Irving's opinion on this subject, as well as that of the 
other writers with whom he agrees in part, seems to have been 
influenced by the impressions that this clause was the fruit of 
remorse experienced by him at the approach of death, and he 
was laboring under the belief that the will itself, or rather the 
codicil in question, was drawn up during the admiral's last ill- 
ness. Such, however, is not the case. The codicil containing 
this language, on the contrary, was drawn up and signed by 
him four years previously, when his health was comparatively 
good, and the career of glory was yet before him. In- 
deed, these authors plainly assert the compunction of Columbus 
to have arisen at his last end, and that his provision for Beatrix 
was then made ; but such is not the case. The codicil in ques- 
tion was made and dated on April ist, 1498, prior to his depart- 
ure on his third voyage. On August 25th, 1505, he re- 
produced it in his own hand, thus reaffirming it, and on May 
19th, 1506, he deposited his whole testamentary depositions in 
the hands of the notary of the court, Pedro de Hinojedo, and 
then, too, he named his executors, his son Diego, his brother 
Bartholomew, and Juan de Porras, the Treasurer-General of 
Biscay. 

While this accusation against Columbus must fall to the ground 
for want of proper foundation, either in fact, in reason, or in law^ 



ON COLUMBUS. Ill 

to sustain it, I will state seriatim some positive grounds for its 
utter refutation. 

First : Columbus was a man of deep and sincere religious con- 
victions, and by his faith an illicit love was anathematized, and 
would, in his own opinion and faith, consign his soul to eternal 
punishment if he should die in such a sin. In this belief and 
conviction he frequently resorted to the confessional. 

Second : The practice and observance of his whole life were 
marked by purity, continence, and chastity. He was pre-emi- 
nently pure in his life, as was demonstrated in Hispaniola, in 
contrast with his Spanish followers. 

Third : He was not an inexperienced man, nor one unaccus- 
tomed to encounter temptations, and thus liable to succumb to 
them when suddenly assailed. He had been a follower of the 
sea from the age of fourteen, and was at the time he met Beatrix 
approaching fifty years of age, thirty-six of which he had spent 
either at sea, in many strange lands, or otherwise exposed to 
temptations of every kind. She was less than half his own age. 
It was the habit of his life to resist and conquer such tempta- 
tions. In the Indies, where Spaniards of high and low degree 
had given themselves up to the most unbridled licentiousness 
and indulgence with the Indian women of the country, the life 
of Columbus was chaste, continent, and pure. Of this sin he 
was never accused. He is known to have resisted every tempta- 
tion to commit it while in the Indies, when to commit it was 
leniently condoned toward men separated from home, and freed 
from the restraints of religion and social ties. In an atmosphere 
of impurity he was pure. 

Fourth : The famil}- of Arana, to which Beatrix belonged, was 
a proud and noble family, as well as a pious and religious one. 
The rigid social safeguards, then as now, observed in Spanish 
families, would prove a sure preservative against the fall of a 
member of such a family into such a fault. As with Columbus, 
so with Beatrix : her religion would prove a powerful preserva- 
tive against such a fall. Her pride of family would have alone 
preserved her. As she had brothers, proud, influential, aristo- 
cratic and chivalrous, the sentiments and practices of the age 
would have compelled them to avenge their sister's dishonor in 
the blood of her betrayer. Had there existed at any time an 
illicit love between Columbus and Beatrix, the proud members 



112 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

of the Arana family would never have associated with Colum- 
bus ; whereas, on the contrary, there were always some members 
of this distinguished family accompanying Columbus in his ex- 
peditions. A brother of Beatrix, Rodrigo de Arana, a distin- 
guished nobleman of Cordova, one whom Oviedo, the royal his- 
toriographer, calls " the virtuous gentleman," would surely not 
have permitted his and Beatrix's younger brother, Pedro de 
Arana, to accompany Columbus on his third voyage, nor would 
he have permitted his and her nephew, Diego de Arana, whom 
Ramusio calls " a good gentleman of Cordova," to have accom- 
panied him on his first voyage, had this fact thus charged been 
true. Nor would Columbus, after he had become the discoverer 
of the new world, the grand admiral of the ocean seas and vice- 
roy, have dared to appoint the former, a brother of his mistress, 
to the command of one of his vessels on the third voyage, thus 
placing under the command of a member of a disgraced family 
members of proud and noble families, and gentlemen of Spain. 
Nor would the admiral have placed in command of Fort Navidad, 
as we shall see hereafter he did, the nephew of his mistress, 
thereby placing under his orders two honorable officers of the 
crown. Spotorno destroys his own credit as a critic by denying 
even the noble birth and blood of Beatrix ; but in this he is con- 
tradicted by such a writer as Navarrete himself, who could not 
refram from declaring her noble, and her family to be the prin- 
cipal house of Cordova. Even after the death of Columbus and 
of his son and successor, we have evidence that Diego de Arana, 
a member of Beatrix's family, was a member of the household of 
Donna Maria de Toledo, the vice-queen of the Indies, the 
widow of Don Diego Columbus, where his rank, as well as his 
alliance with the family of Columbus through Beatrix Enriquez, 
gave him precedence over the officers of the household of the 
vice-queen. Donna Maria de Toledo was the widow of the second 
admiral, Don Diego Columbus, the first son of Columbus, and 
she was a niece of the Duke of Alva. It is not possible that the 
proud and punctilious family of the Toledos would have toler- 
ated the presence of a relative of Beatrix had her relations to 
Columbus been other than the most honorable. 

Fifth : During the voyages of Columbus the members of the 
family of his first and of the family of his second wife were 
brought together in social and official intercourse, which the 



ON COLUMBUS. II3 

former would never have permitted or submitted to had the 
relations of Columbus and Beatrix Enriquez been tainted with 
dishonor. 

Sixth : From 1487 to 1494 Columbus left both his sons, Diego, 
the son of his first wife, and Fernando, the son of Beatrix, "with 
his second wife, Donna Beatrix Enriquez, at Cordova, and there 
the education of these two sons of Columbus was superintended 
by that lady. If his alliance with her was of the scandalous char- 
acter represented by the authors we have named, would Colum- 
bus, after he had broken away from the influence of her charms, 
have voluntarily added one scandal to another, by putting his 
young son Diego, his heir and successor, with a woman destitute 
of virtue ? Would he have so deliberately braved the odium of 
public opinion and the proprieties of social and Christian life ? 
Would he have done so gross an injustice to his son and succes- 
sor, whose legitimacy is unquestioned, as to place him for educa- 
tion with his mistress ? Would Columbus have maintained a 
household at Cordova during so many years, with Beatrix 
Enriquez at its head and his two sons in her charge, subject to 
her authority, recognizing her position, and associating with each 
other upon terms of perfect equality ? If it be alleged that the 
second son belonged to her, then what can be said of his sending 
his first son to her care for his education ? Would he have sent 
the son of his wife to the care of an adulteress ? Would he have 
sent on such a mission that worthy priest. Father Martin Sanchez, 
when the latter carried Diego to Beatrix ? 

Seventh : On the return of Bartholomew Columbus, the noble 
brother of the admiral, from England and France, about 1494, he 
went to Cordova to visit his sister-in-law, Beatrix Enriquez, who 
was there engaged in rearing and educating the two sons of the 
admiral. Would that stern, inflexible, proud, and conscientious 
man have thus recognized this lady as his brother's wife and his 
own sister-in-law, had the admiral's relations with her been illicit 
and immoral ? Would he not have struggled to bury his brother's 
shame, his nephew's disgrace, and his family's embarrassment, 
rather than have thus given publicity to them ? 

Eighth : Bartholomew Columbus carried his two nephews, 
Diego and Fernando, from the guardianship of Beatrix to Queen 
Isabella, and presented them at court ; and the latter immedi- 
ately received them with respect and honor, and appointed both. 



114 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

of them pages at court. Would so pious, devout, and scrupu- 
lous a Christian as Isabella have received into her royal house- 
hold either the illegitimate son or his associate, both just from 
the house of such a person as these modern authors have repre- 
sented Beatrix to have been ? 

Ninth : Queen Isabella expressed great admiration at the man- 
ner in which the two sons of Columbus had been reared at Cor- 
dova under Beatrix Enriquez, by her open acts and consequently 
by corresponding words praised their deportment, and herself 
proposed and decided to receive them from the household of 
Beatrix into her own household and make them members thereof, 
and provide for the continuance and completion of their educa- 
tion. She appointed both Diego and Fernando pages to her son 
the infante. Prince Juan ; and to their uncle the queen issued 
letters of nobility, and gave him the command of three ships to 
proceed to the relief of the admiral. Are such acts on the part 
of such a religious and scrupulous woman consistent with the 
alleged disrepute attributed to this part of the private life of 
Columbus and his family ? Would she have given a bastard to 
her son, the prince and infante, Don Juan, as his page and com- 
panion ? 

Tenth : It was during the very period of his relations and mar- 
riage with Beatrix at Cordova and of the birth of his second son, 
Fernando, at that city, and the following years, that Columbus 
enjoyed the friendship and patronage of the prelates and hie- 
rarchy of the Church, and of such high ecclesiastics as the queen's 
confessor, of the Archbishop of Toledo, of the prior of Prado, 
of members of the venerable Council of Salamanca, of the prior 
of the Franciscan Convent of La Rabida, and other devout and 
irreproachable members of the hierarchy. His son Fernando 
was born at Cordova on August 29th, 1487. No secrecy was 
thrown around the event.* On the contrary, he was the recog- 
nized son of the admiral and of Beatrix. Would such recogni- 
tion have followed an alliance of such a character, especially 
when it was accompanied by the birth of an illegitimate son ? 
Would Columbus have been received at all, much less befriended, 
in such exclusive, religious, and punctilious circles under such 
circumstances ? Would he have been received at court ? 



* Dr. Barry's translation of Count de Lorgues' " Life of Columbus," p. 39. 



ON COLUMBUS. II5 

Eleventh : It was at this very time that Columbus was making' 
the most earnest efforts to secure the patronage of the king and 
queen to his urgent proposals. It was the most critical period of 
his long struggle. Is it possible that a man whose all depended 
upon every and the least, as well as the most important act and 
event of his imperilled career, would have risked the loss of all 
his highest and dearest aspirations by the commission of such an 
indiscretion as is now charged against him ? His own age would 
have made the act more offensive to a Christian court ; more 
hazardous to himself and his dearest hopes. 

Twelfth : It was during this period of his life also, that the 
religious and devout character and every-day life of Columbus 
was marked with the features of a conscientious and devoted 
Christian. How could a man, who was a daily worshipper at 
the altars at Cordova, a constant frequenter of the confessional 
and of the Lord's table, have been at the same time a seducer 
of female virtue and the recognized father of an illegitimate son ? 
Of all the crimes imputed to him by his enemies, religious and 
moral hypocrisy was never one of them. 

Thirteenth : The subsequent reception at court of Columbus 
himself by Isabella, the relations of respect, confidence, affection, 
admiration, and honor, which sprang up between these two 
remarkable persons, both deeply imbued with religion, would 
seem to contradict in the most emphatic manner the charge of 
immorality from which we are now obliged to defend him. 

Fourteenth : During the long and disastrous struggle of Colum- 
bus with his countless enemies, when all Hispaniola and all Spain 
resounded with accusations of every kind against him ; when it 
was a virtue to malign and libel his character, and a service to 
the State and to humanity ; when falsehoods of every kind were 
invented against him, if such an unfortunate and unworthy event 
as this now under consideration had existed in an}^ part of his 
life, it would, without the possibility of its omission, have been 
brought out against him. The atmosphere would have become 
sonorous with so available an accusation against the man, whose 
enemies were active incessantly in bringing forward every pos- 
sible charge against his character. It would have proved an 
irresistible weapon in the hands of his countless enemies. The 
silence of such foes, at such a time and under such circumstances, 
is the virtual acquittal of the admiral. 



Il6 . OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

Fifteenth : During the whole lifetime of Columbus, and for 
nearly a century and a half after his second marriage, not the 
least suspicion was cast on the nature of his connection with 
Beatrix Enriquez ; no trace of it can be found ; no Spanish 
author ever alluded to such a charge ; its origin is foreign to 
Spain, where his life was spent and well known. It is traced 
to an unfair advantage taken of his own words at so great 
a distance of time from his death and of space from the scenes of 
his life. Its author was obscure and irresponsible. His first 
follower in the charge was prejudiced. He had a motive for his 
charge against Columbus. On the contrary, Spanish historians 
speak of his second marriage. The gravest of his historians, 
Tiraboschi, asserts his marriage with Beatrix Enriquez, as do 
all historians near the time of Columbus. 

Sixteenth : From the columns of L' Univers, the leading Catho- 
lic paper of France, for January nth, 1877, we have obtained a 
copy of a valuable document, a manuscript history, written only 
one hundred years after the death of Columbus, which is as 
follows : 

" Rev. Father Marcellino da Civezza has addressed to the El 
Siglo fiitiiro the following letter : 

Mr. Editor : I have the pleasure of informing you that 
I have discovered a new and decisive document on the subject 
of the legitimate marriage of Columbus with Beatrix Enriquez, 
of Cordova, in the Library of the Royal Historical Academy of 
Madrid. This valuable document is to be found in the ' ' General 
History of Cordova and of its Noble Families," by Dr. Andre 
Morales of that city, a manuscript which is preserved in the 
above-named library. 

The Bibliographical Dictionary of Thomas Munoz de 
Romero, 1858, expresses itself as follows in speaking of this 
manuscript : 

" ' " Manuscript in two large volumes. This extensive work 
treats of the history of Cordova as well as of the patrician families 
who have their origin there, whence some call it ' Nobiliary 
History of Cordova,' The author, as we learn from a note in 
the manuscript, is Father Alphonse Garcia, of the Company of 
Jesus, brother of Dr. Andre Morales. Concerning Father Garcia, 
Father Ribadedeira, in the ' Biblioteca Scriptorum Societatis 
Jesu,' speaks of him as follows : 



ON COLUMBUS. II7 

" ' " ' Alphonse Garcia, Spaniard, native of Cordova, entered at 
an early age in the Society ; having professed the four solemn 
vows, he evangelized the Canary Islands, from whence he came 
to Ossuna, where he was appointed rector of the college, and 
died there soon after in the year 161 8.' 

' Now we come to the valuable document. 
"'"Christopher Columbus, Grand Admiral of the West 
Indies, married twice: the first time in Portugal with Donna 
Philippa Moniz de Perestrello, who gave him his eldest son, Don 
Diego ; the second time in Cordova, with a young lad}^ of that 
city named Beatrix Enriquez de Arana, of high lineage, a de- 
scendant of the Viscaya, and from her he had Don Fernand 
Columbus, a knight of great intelligence, bravery, virtue, and a 
great scholar, after leaving the service of the Prince Don Juan, 
whose page he had been/' 

This document is of superlative importance, agreeing in 
ever\^ respect with the one discovered at Valencia by the Rev. 
Raymond Buldee. 

" ' I take the opportunity, Mr. Editor, etc., 

" ' Brother Marcelling da Civezza, 
' Historiographer of the Order of St. Francis. ' " 

The other works alluded to in connection with this subject, 
both pro and con, have been general histories ; but the work 
above quoted, and containing the valuable document on the legit- 
imacy of the second marriage of Columbus, is specially devoted 
•to the history of Cordova and of its noble families. It is also 
written by a Cordovan. Such a work is the most authentic and 
reliable authority on all questions relating to the local history of 
that city and its noble families, and its positive assertion of the 
legitimacy of the second marriage of Columbus is the traditional 
voice and testimony of the entire community of Cordova, in 
which the second wife of Columbus was born, lived and died, 
and the language of Father Alphonse Garcia is equivalent to the 
contemporary voice of that community at the very time of the 
second marriage itself continued down to his time. It will also 
be noticed that reference is made to another and similar docu- 
ment, affirming the legitimacy of the second marriage of Colum- 
bus, which had also been found at Valencia b}' the Rev. Father 
Raymond Buldee. A copy of this last work I have not been 



Il8 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

able to obtain. This first work has been found b}^ the learned 
compiler of Lazzaroni's " Cristophoro Colombo," published at 
Milan in 1892, and from the latter work I shall hereafter make 
ample quotations, which will cover this and other points dis- 
cussed in relation to the second marriage of Columbus. 

Seventeenth : Spotorno, in order to support his accusation, al- 
leges that Beatrix was poor, and that she was of plebeian origin. 
Both these statements are shown to have been untrue. The 
Aranas were one of the oldest and proudest families in Spain, 
and the pension provided for her by Columbus was never de- 
manded b}^ her, and when provided by his will, only paid for a time 
and then discontinued after a few years. She never made any 
complaint. Had Fernando been an illegitimate son of Bea- 
trix, her nobility of birth would never have been referred to 
by the annalist of Seville in the necrological notice of her son. 
In later times her purity of descent was actually pleaded by 
the descendants of Columbus through his first marriage. In 
167 1 Don Pedro Columbus, in pleading the cause of the Dukes 
of Veragua, reminded the Queen of Spain that the two sons of 
the admiral were descended from mothers of noble birth.* An- 
tonio tde Herrera, the royal historiographer of Spain, records 
the second marriage of Columbus in the following words : 
" After the death of his first wife he espoused a second, named 
Beatrix Enriquez, of the city of Cordova, by whom he had Fer- 
nando, a virtuous gentleman, well versed in the science of sound 
learning." So also such eminent writers as Charlevoix, Tira- 
boschi, and Robertson state that Columbus was married also in 
Spain, and the eminent Alvarez de Colmenar speaks of his having 
been twice married. The Marquis de Belloy refers to the mar- 
riage of Columbus and Beatrix Enriquez in the following terms : 
" While he was at Cordova, Columbus took up again for a living 
his art of map-drawing, all the while, however, enlisting par- 
tisans for his project and making numerous and powerful friends. 
The merit of the man shone through his humble circumstances, 
and obtained for him the hand of a girl of noble birth, Beatrix 
Enriquez, by whom he had a son named Fernando or Ferdinand. 
This marriage is related by the Historiographer Royal of Spain, 
Antonio de Herrera. It encountered some opposition from the 



., * Dr. Barry's translation of Count de Lorgues' " Life of Columbus," pp. 35, 36. 



ON COLUMBUS. II9 

Enriquez family, but the extent of that opposition has been 
grossly exaggerated, for on his very first voyage, when his great- 
ness was yet a question for the future to decide, Columbus took 
with him a nephew of Donna Beatrix, and at a later date a young 
brother of hers commanded one of the ships of the third expedi- 
tion."* 

Eighteenth : The objection raised by Navarrete to the legiti- 
macy of the admiral's marriage to Beatrix, that no registry of 
his marriage with her can be found or produced, is answered by 
the facts that no record of his birth or of his death can be found, 
and at the time of his marriage, in i486, neither registry nor 
witnesses were required either by the laws of the Church or of 
Spain in order to validate a marriage. See this point more fully 
treated in thirtieth reason, postea. 

Nineteenth : The authors who deny the marriage of Columbus 
to Beatrix, from Nicolao to Navarrete himself, allege as a reason 
for their denial that Columbus, in alluding to and providing for 
her in his will, does not call her his wife ; and yet he does not 
say she was not his wife, nor does he there allude to her in any 
other light. But this objection is utterly refuted, and the fact 
that she was his wife is wholly proven by the testimony of 
Columbus himself, and this, too, in a letter printed and published 
by Navarrete ; for in a letter he addressed to persons whose 
duty it was to support his claim at the court of Spain, he 
states that he had " quitted all — wife and children — and never 
enjoyed the sweetness of living with them." " Y deje mucher y 
fijos que jamas vi por ello. "f A grandson of Navarrete virtually 
recognizes the legitimacy of Fernando in speaking of the two 
brothers, Diego and Fernando, in the same sentence and as being 
on equal terms ; he says that Fernando, equally with his brother 
Diego, was one of the greatest favorites of the Prince Royal of 
Spain.:}: 

Twentieth : It will be seen that Columbus in his will recog- 
nizes both his sons as on a perfect equality in all respects, except 



* Herrera, "General History of the Voyages and Conquests of Castilians," ist 
dec, b. i., c. 7. 

f Barry's De Lorgues' " Columbus " p. 43 ; Navarrete, " Coleccion Diplomatica," 
num. cxxxvii. 

X Eustaquio, "Coleccion ineditos para la Historia de Espafta," por D. Miguel Salva. 
t. xvi., p. 291. 



I20 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

in the necessary and indispensable respect of the primogeniture 
of his elder son, Don Diego. This same and only distinction 
between them would have occurred had both been the sons of 
the same mother. The priority of the birth of Don Diego was 
simply a fact, and Columbus recognized it. In all other respects 
he places them on a perfect equality. 

Twenty-first : So also in his correspondence, both private and 
official, he refers to his two sons in equal terms. His manner of 
referring to Fernando is free, natural, and unrestrained ; and in 
his letters to the Spanish sovereigns he refers constantly to Fer- 
nando without reserve, and with paternal pride he praises his 
precocious talents and his youthful but faithful services. If he 
had been illegitimate, would he have thus constantly recalled his 
own shame and his son's dishonor by praising him, and would 
he have so often recalled the embarrassing fact to such august 
and important personages ? In fact, the alleged irregularit)^ of 
the admiral's connection with Beatrix and the alleged illegitimacy 
of Fernando, if true, would cause him embarrassment in his life- 
time, but it (lid not do so. 

Twenty-second : Mr. Irving, following Navarrete and Hum- 
boldt, assigns the attractions of Beatrix's charms and the preg- 
nancy of that lady as the cause for the admiral's refusal to leave 
Cordova on the request of King John II. of Portugal, that he 
would return to Lisbon. This is a fair illustration of the inven- 
tions which enter into supposed history ; for the fact is that the 
letter of the Portuguese king came to Columbus toward the last 
of August, 1488, whereas the accouchement of Beatrix and the 
birth of Fernando had already taken place eight months before, 
and Columbus, in the year he received King John's letter — 148S 
— was following the court at Seville and Valladolid. His great 
mission had already carried him away from Cordova. 

Twenty-third : In the solemn conventions between Columbus 
and the Spanish sovereigns, dated April 17th, 1492, the prologue 
of the journal of Columbus, the royal decree of May 20th, 1493, 
and all other documents in which reference could be made to 
them, the two sons of Columbus are uniformly referred to ; and 
where Diego is to be distinguished from Fernando, it is only as 
the elder of his sons. The Count de Lorgues states that the 
language of the Mayorazgo or entailment of Columbus's estate 
implies evidently that Columbus was then married, in foreseeing 



ON COLUMBUS. 121 

that he might have other children than the two sons he therein 
named, and yet excluded the possibility of a third marriage. 

Twenty-fourth : The fact that Columbus regarded Cordova, 
the residence of Beatrix, as his own residence, is proved by the 
official document awarding him the premium for first seeing the 
land of the new world, and the award was made payable at Cor- 
dova. This was the city where his family resided. He was then 
leading a wandering life of discovery. He had no other resi- 
dence than that of his wife and family. His family consisted of his 
wife and two sons. This fact is inconsistent with an}'^ other the- 
ory than that of legal marriage. What but legitimate marriage 
and offspring could give him a legal residence at Cordova after 
he had left that city ? 

Twenty -fifth : His two sons associated together on terms of 
perfect equality before the world. They were introduced at 
court and in society together. They were universally recog- 
nized by their contemporaries as equally legitimate. When 
Columbus sent to congratulate the Portuguese governor of 
Arcilla, who had among his officers near relations of his first 
wife, he sent his very son Fernando on the embassy. Would he 
have sent a bastard son of a mistress to meet and associate with 
a near relative of his first wife ? Would not this have been an 
insult to the officer himself and to the memorj^ of his first wife ? 
How could Fernando himself, a man of refined education, have 
recalled afterward in his history of his father a circumstance so 
humiliating to himself ? 

Twenty-sixth : In the genealogical trees of the Columbus 
family, the two sons of the admiral are always regarded as 
equally legitimate. Such evidence is of the highest weight. 
The Italian members of the Colombo family, at the trials for the 
succession in the Spanish tribunals, presented genealogies in 
which Fernando was placed on the same branch with his brother 
Diego. The senator, John Peter Sordi, the solicitor or advocate 
for Balthazar Colombo, in consultations in behalf of his clients, 
always recognized the legitimacy of Fernando. An eminent 
jurisconsult, Don Perez de Castro, of Madrid, in his memorial 
to the Court of Appeals, dated July 15th, 1792, indignantly re- 
jected the insinuation of the attorney de la Palma y Freytas, as 
to the illegitimacy of Fernando, and declared that no portion of 
the proceedings cast the least doubt on the legitimacy of For- 



122 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

nando. The genealogical tree of the Cucarro branch of the 
Colombos places Diego and Fernando side by side and on the 
same branch, and this family always recognized the legitimacy 
of Fernando. Luigi Colombo, in express terms, recognizes the 
legitimacy of Fernando. Family trees and family recognitions 
constitute the highest evidences on all questions of marriage, 
legitimacy, and descent. 

Twenty-seventh : While some obscure words in the will of 
Columbus, though capable of being construed quite differently, 
are relied upon for the charge that Columbus was never married 
to Beatrix Enriquez, so by another and clearly expressed portion 
of the same document we are able to prove the legitimacy of 
Fernando Columbus, and consequently the legality of the second 
marriage of the admiral. In this remarkable document legiti- 
macy of birth is expressly declared to be the test of succession 
to his inheritance or entailed estate, and illegitimac}^ is made an 
insuperable obstacle to the succession. In the same instrument 
he makes his son Fernando, the son of Beatrix Enriquez, his heir 
and successor in the event of his eldest son Diego dying without 
children. Such provisions of the will are equivalent to an ex- 
press declaration by the admiral himself, and that, too, in the 
most solemn document he ever executed, that Fernando Colum- 
bus was his legitimate son, and that Beatrix Enriquez was his 
lawful wife. It would not seem possible that a man of the great 
intellect of Columbus, so clear and logical, so consistent and 
uniform in every act, could have perpetrated such a blunder or 
could have been guilty of such an inconsistency as this would 
prove to be if Fernando Columbus be declared a bastard. So 
important is this evidence, that I will give the clause in question 
as it is written in the admiral's will. 

' ' In the first place, I am to be succeeded by Don Diego, my 
son, who, in case of death without children, is to be succeeded 
by my other son, Fernando. . . . And should it please the 
Lord that the estate, after continuing for some time in the line 
of any of the above successors, should stand in need of an imme- 
diate and lawful male heir, the succession shall then devolve to 
the nearest relative, being a man of legitimate birth. 
This entailed estate shall in nowise be inherited by a woman, 
except in case that no male is to be found, either in this or any 
other quarter of tlic world, of my real lineage, whose name, as 



ON COLUMBUS. I23 

Avell as that of his ancestors, shall have always been that of 
Columbus. In such an event (which may God forfend), then the 
female. of legitimate birth most nearly related to the preceding 
possessor of the estate shall succeed to it."* 

Twenty-eighth : While it would not be fair or just or consist- 
ent with the canons of correct construction to put upon the. 
clause of the will relating to Beatrix Enriquez a construction 
which would make Columbus assign himself and her, whom he 
loved so well, to obloquy or disgrace, such a construction would 
be still less to be tolerated if any other rational construction can 
be placed upon it, or any other state of facts established which 
would harmonize with the language of the will. This can be 
done. 

Shortly after his marriage to Beatrix he was compelled to 
leave her and the city of Cordova, to follow the court from 
place to place, and to prosecute his great mission. The re- 
mainder of the year of his marriage — 1486 — he was seeking an 
audience at court. In 1487 he was before the Scientific Congress 
or Junto of Salamanca. He was absent from Cordova when his 
son Fernando was born, and the end of this year finds him at Sara- 
gossa. In 1488 we find him at Seville and afterward at Valladolid, 
and it was in this year that he went to Lisbon to meet his brother 
Bartholomew. In 1489 we find him again at Seville, following up 
the court. The remainder of that year he spent in the field as a 
volunteer in the campaign of Baza. During this year he paid a 
flying visit to Cordova and to Beatrix and his sons. In 1490 he 
was the guest of the Duke of Medina Sidonia and of the Duke 
of Medina Celi. He was the guest of the Duke of Medina Celi 
through the year 149 1 and a part of 1492. In this latter year he 
had secured the confidence of the sovereigns, negotiated his 
solemn conventions or treaties with them, went on his first voy- 
age, and discovered the new world. From that time to the day 
of his death, a period of alternate labor, trials, successes and 
misfortunes, and of incessant toil and application to his assumed 
and recognized mission, we have no account of his having visited 
or seen Beatrix, except at intervals stolen from his engrossing 
-duties. When his sons were taken from Cordova he was in the 



* Dr. Barry's translation of Count de Lorgues' " Life of Columbus," pp. 6ig, 620 ; 
Irving's " Columbus," vol. iii.. p. 444. 



124 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

Indies, and his brother Bartholomew had to go to that city for 
them. During these years of feverish excitement and incessant 
travels, the wife shared none of his solicitude and participated 
not in his triumphs, and yet she performed the duties of a mother 
and guardian to both his sons. She also maintained his legal 
domicile at Cordova. She was evidently ever submissive, un- 
complaining, faithful, maternal, domestic, and loving. 

Was it not true, then, that Columbus was greatly indebted to 
her ? Was it not true that so long a separation from his wife, 
the head of his household at Cordova, the guardian and educator 
of his children, the silent and uncomplaining partner of his love, 
a neglect and forgetfulness of her which we have not sufficient 
facts to explain, except in the overwhelming engrossment of the 
husband, should weigh heavily on his soul and on his conscience ? 
Was not this tardy provision made to enable her to live suitably 
— that is, in a manner suitable to his wife — when once made, a 
relief to his conscience ? Why should he be so solicitous for the 
suitable living of one whom he had neglected, if she were not his 
wife ? Having established a house in Cordova, was it not proper 
and just that he should suitably maintain and support the long- 
neglected wife therein ? And why should so sensitive a nature 
as Columbus's disclose to the world the causes or reasons for his 
action ? Had there been anything cruel in the conduct of Colum- 
bus toward Beatrix, his countless enemies would certainly have 
accused him of it. From this it would seem that his long ab- 
sences from Beatrix assumed in his just mind exaggerated pro- 
portions, and he repentantly endeavored to satisfy the sugges- 
tions of his conscience. There was no occasion for his publish- 
ing such a matter to the world. Had the facts for which he thus 
showed such regret been culpable or criminal, as charged against 
him, involving also the inculpation of one loved by him and the 
dishonor of one he loved with a father's love, Columbus would 
never have made the slightest allusion to them. This theory, 
I think, full)' accounts for and explains the clause in the will, 
and sets the conduct of Columbus above all reproach. 

Twenty-ninth : While, of course, there is nothing authentic 
known to the public in relation to the process for the canoniza- 
tion at Rome of Christopher Columbus, the fact that there is a 
widespread desire among learned and devout members of his 
Church, including eminent ecclesiastics and authors, for his re- 



ON COLUMBUS. 12$ 

ceiving the honors of the altar, go far to remove and discredit 
the accusation of an illicit connection between him and Beatrix 
Enriquez. Tradition and general reputation, and the fame of 
religion which has always clung to his life, acquit him of every 
such stain. There has been printed by the American news- 
press during the centennial year a statement, purporting to come 
from Rome, that the process for his canonization had been 
arrested on account of the charge that his relations with Beatrix 
Enriquez were not sanctioned by marriage. But the present 
writer has good authority for stating that no such statement as 
this has ever emanated from the Sacred Congregation of Rites 
at Rome, which has charge of the process of canonization. In 
no instance are such statements permitted to issue or receive 
countenance from that holy commission. Mention has alread}- 
been made in these pages of important documents said to have 
been found within recent years in Spain, which it is thought will 
go far to authenticate a legal marriage, and I have good reason 
for the belief that private documents have also been found and 
presented which establish that fact. 

Thirtieth : There is another view of this subject which seems 
not to have been presented in other works relating to Columbus. 
Taking the facts as they are known to us and are undisputed, it 
is clear and indisputable that, according to the ecclesiastical law 
of the time, Columbus and Beatrix Enriquez were lawfully mar- 
ried. That ecclesiastical law, at the time of the marriage, not 
only determines its validity, but as the law of Spain and the con- 
tinental law generally conformed thereto, their marriage was 
valid under the civil law. The law of the Catholic Church on 
this subject is clearly set forth in the following passages from a 
recent work, which bears the imprimaturs of the Rev. Edward S. 
Keogh, Deputy Censor of the Congregation of the Oratory, of 
His Eminence Cardinal Manning, Archbishop of Westminster, 
and of His Eminence Cardinal McCloskey, Archbishop of New 
York. 

" The conditions for the validity of marriage are mostly identi- 
cal with the conditions which determine the validity of contracts 
in general. The consent to the union must be mutual, voluntary, 
deliberate, and manifested by external signs. The signs of con- 
sent need not be verbal in order to make the marriage valid, 
though the rubric of the ritual requires the consent to be ex- 



126 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

pressed in that manner. The consent must be to actual mar- 
riage, then and there, not at some future time."* 

The validity of clandestine marriages was fully recognized 
by the Church, and the common opinion of the mediseval doctors 
made the essence of marriage consist in the free consent of the 
contracting parties. The Council of Trent introduced a new 
condition for the validity of the contract, and therefore of the 
sacrament. It declared all marriages null unless contracted 
before the parish priest or another priest approved by him for 
the purpose, and two or three witnesses, "f 

Now, as I have already stated, the marriage of Columbus and 
Beatrix Enriquez took place in the latter part of November, i486, 
and the first session of the Council of Trent did not take place 
until December loth, 1545, so that at the time of the marriage 
in question — 1487 — the consent of the parties manifested by words 
or other signs of consent, in presenti, constituted a valid marriage, 
and so the law remained for nearly sixty years thereafter, when 
the Council of Trent, in 1546, for the first time required the pres- 
ence of a priest and of two or more witnesses. 

There is no question in this case as to the affection and consent 
between Columbus and Beatrix, for all authorities testify to this, 
nor is there anything even to exclude the additional fact of a 
ceremony in the presence of priest and witnesses, even though 
these features were not requisite. A registry was neither re- 
quired nor, as it seems, customary. The subsequent birth of a 
son, at the wife's residence at Cordova, the recognition of that 
son by the most frequent and solemn acts, the establishment of a 
house and residence at Cordova for his wife and his children 
by the two marriages, his return to that house and residence 
from time to time, the education of his children there by the 
wife, his acquisition and claim of a legal domicile at the place 
where he had established the residence and domicile of his family — 
Cordova — over which Beatrix presided as wife and mother, are 
facts and circumstances which bring the case clearly within the 
requirements both of the laws of the Church and of the State. 



* "A Catholic Dictionary," etc., by William E. Addis, secular priest, sometime 
Fellow of the Royal University of Ireland, and Thomas Arnold, M.A., Fellow of the 
same university. New York: The Catholic Publication Society, 1884, p. 548. 

t Jd., p. 435. 



ON COLUMBUS. 12/ 

Such a state of facts would, at common law, prove a valid mar- 
riage both in England and America at the present day. 

The following instructive and interesting passage from Shel- 
ford's " Law of Marriage and Divorce," on the Council of Trent 
and its action on the subject of marriage, will be read with inter- 
est by our readers.* 

" This celebrated council was held in the bishopric of Trent, 
a province of Germany, in the circle of Austria, situated upon 
the Alps. It sat with some intermissions from the )^ear 1545 t:) 
1563, when the doctrine of the Pope's infallibility, transubstan- 
tiation, etc., were confirmed. The council was first opened 
under Paul III., on December 13th, 1545, continued under Julius 
III., interrupted under Marcellus II. and Paul IV. by the wars 
and troubles of the continent, and terminated about the year 
1563, and was confirmed by a bull signed by a legate of the Holy 
See, who, according to the practice of all ages, presided at the 
assembly. (Halkerstone's Dig., 69, note. See History of this 
Council, by Father Paul, fol., London, 1676, and Pallavi- 
cino.) 

" ' There is, among the true believers, nothing more certain and 
undoubted than that the marriage contract has been elevated to 
the dignity of a sacrament ; this is a truth inherent to the Roman 
Catholic tenets, established by the sovereign pontiff, Eugene IV., 
in his decree instituted for the Armenians, section 7, repeated b)^ 
the Holy Council of Trent, in section 24, "Of the Reform of 
Marriage," chapter i, and learnedly upheld and illustrated by 
Bellarmino, in his book entitled " Of Holy Marriage," against 
the attacks of Luther, Calvin, and other heretics. In order, there- 
fore, that the faithful should celebrate the marriage most religious- 
ly, which the apostle, in his Epistle to the Ephesians, chapter 5, 
denominates " a great sacrament in Christ," and in the Church, 
from the earliest times of the Church itself, it has been instituted 
and held that the marriage ought to be celebrated before the 
priest, by whom it was validated with his benediction. How- 
ever, whatever may have been the ancient discipline respecting 
the validity of those marriages which had been celebrated with- 
out the assistance of the rector, it is now beyond all doubt that 
no marriage can at present be validly celebrated unless with 



* See '■ Canones et Decreta Concilii Trident." sess. 24, c. I. 



128 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

observance of the forms prescribed by the Holy Council of 
Trent. That doctrine appears to be strictly established by the 
said council in section 24, ' ' Of the Reform of Marriage," chapter 
I, in which we find the following passage : " Qui aliter, quam prje- 
sente parocho, vel alio sacerdote, de ipsius parochi seu ordanarii 
licentia, et duobus vel tribus testibus matrimonium contrahare 
attentabunt, eos sancta Synodus ad sic contrahendum omnino in- 
habiles reddet et hujusmodi contractus irritos et nullos esse decer- 
nit, prout eos praesenti decreto irritos facit et annullat " (" Concilii 
Trident. Canones et Decreta," p. 250, ed. 1615). "If any per- 
son shall presume to contract marriage otherwise than in the 
presence of the parish rector, or of another priest delegated by 
the said parish rector or the ordinary, and in the presence of 
two or three witnesses, the holy synod renders them unapt for 
so contracting ; and it declares such contracts as null and void, 
as by this present decree it renders void and annuls the same. 
And it is hereby declared that the marriage benediction shall be 
given by the proper parish rector, and that the license for so 
giving the said benediction cannot be granted to another priest 
b}^ any other person than the rector himself or the ordinary." 
It is therefore quite clear that in Rome, and in all other places 
where the Council of Trent is received, the marriage must be 
celebrated before the proper parish rector, and in the presence 
of two witnesses. By "proper rector" is to be understood the 
rector in whose parish the contracting parties have their resi- 
dence ; and as it may happen that the two contracting parties 
are residents in two different parishes, it will then be sufficient 
for the validity of the marriage that the act be performed with 
the intervention of the parish rector of either of the parties. 
And this principle is so far a matter of strict rule, that even for- 
eigners and travelers, who may happen to be making but a tem- 
porary sojourn in some place where the Council of Trent is re- 
ceived, cannot validly contract marriage without observing that 
formality, as among other matters is laid down and explained by 
Pirking in the Decretal, Book IV., title 3, section 2, No. 10, in 
which is contained the following (from the Latin) : " Foreigners 
who are merely passing through a place in which a decree of the 
Council of Trent is received cannot validly contract marriage, 
unless it be done with the assistance of the parish rector and 
before witnesses, even should the said decree not be received at 



ON COLUMBUS. 129 

the place in which they make thdr residence, because they are 
bound to observe the laws of the place through which they are 
then passing. In addition to this, neither the parish rector nor 
the ordinary himself, or any other superior authority, could 
grant faculty for uniting in marriage two persons who were not 
Roman Catholics, because it is an absurdity that those who are 
disunited from the Church should be made participators of a 
sacrament of that same Church." From the deposition of Bel- 
loni. Doctor of Civil and Canon Law, stated in joint appendix to 
the case of Swift vs. Kelly, before the judgment committee of 
the Privy Council, pp. 138, 139.' " 

It was not until after the foregoing pages had been written 
that I saw and read a new book, a noble monument to Chris- 
topher Columbus, a work recently published at Milan, and en- 
titled " Cristoforo Colombo. Osservazioni Critiche sui punti pui 
rilevanti e controversi della sua vita, publicata per cura di M. A. 
Lazzaroni." The learned and accomplished author of this work 
devotes a considerable space to the consideration of the question 
of the marriage of Columbus and Beatrix Enriquez, regarding it 
as one of the most salient and controverted points in the life of 
the admiral. He handles the subject with research, with impar- 
tiality, with learning, with eloquence, and with consummate 
ability. He intelligently and cogently espouses the cause of the 
legitimacy of the second marriage, and his arguments seem un- 
answerable. The logic of his facts is most convincing. He has 
found in the valuable and important work of Dondero, on " The 
Morality of Columbus," quotations from two important works : 
the one written by the Jesuit Father Alphonso Garcia, in 161 8, 
and the other written by Father Pietro Simon di Parillas, in 1627 
— works which show the voice of authentic history during those 
one hundred and sixty years prior to the invention of the libra- 
rian, Nicolao Antonio, that the relations of Columbus and Beatrix 
were not sanctioned by marriage. And these quotations he gives 
us. He also gives the full title of the manuscript or document 
first mentioned in this chapter in the sixteenth reason for sustain- 
ing the marriage of Columbus and Beatrix. He also gives us 
important testimony from the pen of Columbus himself, taken 
from an authentic copy of an autograph letter of Columbus, dated 
April 23d, 1497. The treatment of the subject in Signor Laz- 
zaroni's fine work is so unique and so cogent that I have deemed 



I30 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

it but just to the learned author to introduce it here in fuU^ 
which I have done in a translation made of the following pages : 
" Want ! 3'es, Columbus had felt it that first year of his sojourn 
in Spain, and, perhaps, afterward, but did not allow himself to 
be cast down b}^ it, as happens with weak minds, and never 
listened to its dangerous counsels. He was so absorbed in the 
idea, become now the absolute master of his spirit, as not to 
advert to the sad contingencies of life ; so compassed by the 
loftiness of his conceptions as to carry his head erect amid trials, 
and wear gracefully and with dignity his torn cloak. A gravity 
tempered by modesty, a cheerful comeliness, facile eloquence, 
goodness and authority, breathing from his whole air, are the 
lines that prevail in the portraits left us of him by contemporary 
writers. 

Although these notes portray the discoverer at the zenith of 
his renown, they all the same attest that which he would be 
under adverse fortune, granting that happy successes and pro- 
pitious fortune deteriorate rather than better the character's 
good qualities. A precocious old age, that from thirty years 
bleached his blond locks, made more striking the vivid bloom 
of his cheeks, above which his clear eyes benignantly shone, and 
outlined with imperative evidence his aquiline nose. 

With these manners and appearance, Columbus presented 
himself to the sovereigns of Spain, and placed at their feet a new 
world, and knew how to make his poverty light for himself and 
respected by others. We were about to say that he knew how 
to make it lovable ; for not only admiration and friendship were 
drawn to him, but love, too, discerning the excellence of his 
spirit under his modest garb, was there to console him with its 
sweetness. This brings us to touch another very ticklish point 
of Columbus's life, and seriously controverted in our day. Col- 
umbus had, when dj'ing, a sad souvenir of her who, when he was 
poor and almost unknown, had yielded up to him her affections, 
and made bud forth some roses on the thorns of his first resi- 
dence in Cordova. However, the secret grief that tempers those 
memorable words seemed the ill-disguised expression of a re- 
morse, the mysteriovis hinting at a fault, and that testamentary 
disposition became the gauge of battle and controversy. But 
to return. Columbus had in manners and mien all that best 
pleases, but his rare loftiness of soul, that vibrated in his warm 



ON COLUMBUS. 



131 



and eloquent speech, was the bait by which were taken all who 
had relations with him. He was, withal, a very simple man, but 
the simphcit}^ that rarely dissociates itself from true greatness 
flowed in him from a special fountain — from his singular piety. 
One would give an imperfect and disfigured portrait of the great 
navigator, who would be silent with regard to his sincere and 
almost mystical piety, his living faith, which, blending itself 
with genuine spiritualism, uplifted to the height of m3^sterious 
revelations the offspring of his own intellect. That such relig- 
ious fervor, which characterizes Columbus, was not borne by 
him from Italy, a country republican, commercial, greedy of 
riches, as .Humboldt afifirmed, but learned in Andalusia, at Gra- 
nada, and in conversation with the friars of La Rabida, seems 
to us the assertion best founded of the celebrated German 
writer.* 

Without diffusiveness, let us say in passing that to souls of 
the temper of Columbus certain qualities do not attach them- 
selves ; they are born and develop with the individual, and con- 
stitute rather, at times, the secret of his singularity and great- 
ness. Had not Humboldt written of Columbus : ' In effect, all 
that seems to belong but to the narrow circle of the material in- 
terests of life rise in the occult mind of this extraordinary man 
to a nobler sphere, to a mysterious spiritualism ' ? f Wh}', then, 
take back one's word ? 

Republican and commercial Italy had also her religious or 
theological fervor, as Humboldt calls it. It will suffice, among 
man}' examples, to remember that in the country of Macchiavelli, 
Savonarola arose, and that from the hearing of thirty votive 
masses of the Holy Ghost, Cola di Rienza, who professed to be 
His envoy, mounted the capitol to then awaken pagan echoes 
and fantasies of the republic and the tribune's office. Would it 
not be more likely to say that in Columbus, believing like a man 
of his time, as a mariner, as a good Genoese, religious fervor 
mounted to the height of his other stupendous qualities ? 

To affirm that he acquired it in Spain, besides being im- 
proper to us, seems dangerous to the reputation of Columbus ; 
the glare of the funeral pyres, the fierce san benitos, and the 



* " Hist, de la Geograph.," etc., vol. iii., p. 258, Paris, 1837. 
f Id., vol. i., p. 109. Paris, 1837. 



132 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

fearful figures of the D'Arhues and the Torquemadas might 
cross athwart the reader's mind. 

" Columbus was pious by temperament and by conviction ; 
was a theologian from tireless reading of the Bible and the 
Fathers, and because, as Humboldt well wrote, his ardent mind 
was upborne to a mysterious spiritualism ; however, as in him 
practical sense was not unaccompanied by profound idealism, so 
to sublime religious theories he knew how to adopt the minute 
practices of worship. 

" On this it behooves us to cite some words of Fernando, his 
son and historiographer :* ' Of religious things he was so observ- 
ant that, in fact, in saying the entire canonical office, he might 
be deemed a professed religious, and was such an enemy of oaths 
that I never heard him swear ; and when he found himself most 
angry, his reproof was to say, " I give you to God ; why have 
you done or said this ?" and if anything were to be written, he 
did not begin without first writing these words : " Jesus cum 
Maria sit nobis in via'' (" May Jesus with Mary be with us in the 
way").' And this, we repeat, was indispensable to the repre- 
sentation of the entire moral physiognomy of Columbus, of which 
the religious spirit constitutes a typically profound feature. If 
to some it may seem that we have too much insisted on this, we 
invite them to kindly join us in judging men according to the 
age they live in, not according to current prejudices. Nowadays 
greatness and devoutness may, perhaps, seem incompatible ; but 
'twas not so in the past, and the example of Columbus may stand 
for a hundred other luminous proofs of it. 

" To us the having discoursed somewhat at length of it seems 
also as a substratum for what we are about to say of that affec- 
tion, which relieved the enforced idleness of Columbus, and ren- 
dering less bitter for him the awaiting, contributed, indirectly, 
to retain him in Spain. 

" History is silent about the particulars which we should most 
wish to know of this love episode, and only hands down to us 
the name of the maiden. She was called Beatrix, of the family 
Enriquez de Arana, nobles of the city, and descended from an 
illustrious Biscay lineage, but, as it appears, no longer with a 
large rental. Columbus and Beatrix loved one another, and of 



* " Historia deir Almirante," cap. iii. 



ON COLUMBUS. I33 

this love was born Fernando Columbus, the historian of his 
father's deeds — learned, noble, virtuous hidalgo — to whom his- 
tory has been lavish of praise. 

" So we now come upon, as is easily seen, another of the con- 
troverted moments in Columbus's history, a point most hotly 
disputed, now that they wish to make a saint of Columbus, de- 
spite the deductions realistically pessimistic of modern criticism. 
There is question of nothing- less than establishing the character 
of the bond that united Columbus to Beatrix — was it concubinage 
or marriage ? Of this last opinion the Count Roselly de Lorgues 
has been, and very partially, one of the hottest and most dramatic 
narrators of the life of Columbus. His great error, so much cast 
up to him by his contradictors, is that of having a wish to main- 
tain, with drawn sword, the all-around moral perfection of his 
hero. And we Italians ought to know how to be grateful to 
him for the same, because holiness and greatness do not abso- 
lutely exclude one another ; but the contrary happens, and it is 
beautiful to see among the most bitter those who by country 
and temperament ought at least to have kept themselves in a 
certain reserve. Count Roselly de Lorgues, whose excellent 
ability as a writer in no way yields to the exquisite courtesy he 
displays in his rich and peaceful Parisian home, knew how to 
gather together and weigh so many arguments in favor of the 
lawfulness of the love of Columbus and Beatrix, as to make one 
despair of attempting the work again. We, who are not invested 
with the spirit of the illustrious Frenchman, cannot go down 
into the arena with him, not through fear of being laughed at, 
nor to withhold ourselves from the defence of truth, but because 
it frightens us to think of pitching headlong into another con- 
jectural question. We shall, however, bring forth testimony 
and considerations gathered here and there on the battle-field, 
or drawn from our own sentiments, leaving the verdict to the 
reader. 

Before all, this new love-throb of Columbus, amid the grave 
preoccupations of his intellect and the trials of life, seems to us 
a proof of the gentleness and exhaustless exuberance of his soul. 
The mind absorbed in arduous speculations renders unfruitful 
and inert all the other faculties of the spirit, and love seldom 
knocks where intellect reigns supreme. Only to a few privileged 



134 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

natures is it given that the heart does not wither under the 
tyranny of mind. 

" A Columbus in love is more touching than a venerable 
Columbus, and we should be disposed, if Count Roselly will 
excuse us, to pardon him much if he had loved much. 

" But history has very different responsibilities from senti- 
ment, and from the historical point of view it appears also to us 
little likely that Columbus in his life in Spain made an amorous 
faux pas. With the mind full of that egregious loyalty, of that 
deep religiosity continually enlivened by pious practices, it is 
difficult to picture Columbus as the seducer of )^oung girls ; that 
he waits twenty long years to disburden himself of his fault, and 
at the point of death, with a few enigmatical words. So flagrant 
an anomaly cannot but strike the least attentive reader, who has 
glanced at the lines we have written upon the moral and religious 
qualities of the renowned Italian. It is one of those cases in 
which, even did history speak explicitly to the contrary, one 
would be at a loss to which side to incline. 

" Nor is it easier to admit that a young woman of noble stock 
should allow herself to be seduced by the first-comer, and that, 
considering the prevailing Catholic rigorism to which the court, 
and, above all, the queen, gave tone, whatever grace of manner 
or charm of speech was possessed by Columbus, with difficulty 
would he have been able at forty, or worse, at fifty years, to 
ensnare in the seducer's net a maiden whom so many obstacles 
rendered inaccessible to a vulgar seduction. 'Twere need that 
this could be, that to the command of his brilliant qualities should 
be added a deep cunning, a great perfidiousness — things not even 
the shadow of which the worst enemy of Columbus will be able 
to point out. Let us agree on it, the moral likelihood is all on 
the side of them who defend the honesty of this affection ; all the 
more that, in treating of a legitimate bond, where very different 
considerations prevail over the seductions of sense or the enthu- 
siasm of youth, the obstacle of the disproportion of years almost 
disappears. The course being taken thus, we invite the reader 
to reflect that a poor stranger like Columbus, who committed all 
to the future, who looked for everything from the good-will and 
favor of unknown hosts, would have ill consulted his own credit 
and the good success of his cause by beginning in the role of 
seducer. Rather than upon the boundless waters of the Atlantic, 



ON COLUMBUS. 135 

he ran the risk of passing through the flaming funeral piles of 
Torquemada, and finding a new world — yes, but be3^ond the river 
of Acheron ! 

" From the following fact a new and sensible repugnance 
arises. Columbus, become admiral and viceroy of the regions 
to be discovered beyond the Atlantic, took among the officers of 
his first expedition a Diego de Arana, nephew of his Beatrix. 
In what kind of world are we ? Was this the recompense for 
the outrage, the reward of infamy ? Did the lover and the 
nephew, ten years after the occurrence, traffic in the honor of 
poor Beatrix, the dishonor of the family, rather than exact and 
accord an adequate reparation ? Away with the thought ! The 
mere shadow of such suppositions would suffice to stain the 
honor of the lineage of the De Arana, and wickedly wound the 
memory of Columbus. 

These and like considerations came up to us spontaneously, 
closely observing this passage in the life of Columbus, which, 
passed over by ancient historians, has sprung upon to-day, brist- 
ling with difficulties, big with polemical storms, beset with 
reasons and sophisms, at the announcement of the proposed 
canonization of the hero. 

" One does not indeed understand why so much rabidness is 
shown in wishing to exclude from the honors of the altar and from 
the company of so many elect spirits him who revived almost 
the work of creation by giving back to the earth its lost or 
rather entirely ignored half. Such a miracle is this, that besides 
healing and atoning any fault whatsoever, if there were any, 
would alone suffice for the glorification of a man. But in speak- 
ing thus, we do not intend to enter into that which is not within 
our competence, nor in the least to injure by our words con- 
secrated regulations ; it is with the zeal of certain writers that 
we find fault, who persist in revealing the sore, where they had 
done better to help those gentle ones who threw over it the 
mantle of Japhet. As to us, we refrain from actively mingling 
in the fray, as this blessed history of Columbus is already too 
much girt with difficulties not to feel at times the need of resting 
ourself, and leaving others to speak and wrangle. 

" Columbus saw, then, in Cordova, observed and admired, the 
young Beatrix Enriquez, and felt awaken within himself a most 
tender affection for her. I have purposely used this superlative, 



136 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

because in well-formed minds, like that of Columbus, and in con- 
tingencies like to his, the youth of a woman has a special effect,. 
a sweetly irresistible charm, and, besides, a love late in coming, 
or that is renewed at the age less favorable to love, never comes 
without great usury. 

" How came Columbus to see near at hand, and speak to 
Beatrix, and be heard in her own home ; because, even in the 
worst hypothesis, he must have been received willingly. This 
is not known, as even the epoch is uncertain, which, however, 
in our opinion may be believed to be toward the end of his first 
year of residence in Spain, when the public voice had already 
become familiar with his name, and some presaged favorably of 
the successes and the future of this singular foreigner. With 
such recommendations Columbus addressed himself to the re- 
spectable family of the 3^oung lady ; saw himself shortly admitted 
to their confidence. The fact that one of the Enriquez de Arana, 
Beatrix's nephew, followed Columbus in a certain rank in his 
first voyage of discover}^ is a proof that the De Arana believed 
and hoped from the first in their guest, and wished most cordially 
to strengthen these hopes by the bond of relationship. 

" There is thus far nothing unlikely in the ideal reconstruction 
we are making of this obscure passage in the life of Columbus, 
who, either that his growing reputation or a mutual friend he met 
recommended him in that home, has suddenly shown himself 
better than his reputation. His commanding beauty of mien, 
graceful manners, and jovial conversation, which rose at times 
to eloquence even, were calculated to win ; but in his favorite 
theme his speech flashed from his lips ; his movement, look — all 
were in him those of a prophet. We delight to represent him 
to ourselves, then, in the home of De Arana, in the attentive 
family circle, coloring his plan of transatlantic navigation, fore- 
telling the wonders of another sea, another sky, other regions 
vast, fertile, rich, leaving his little audience dazed. With these 
phantasmagoric revelations of another hemisphere, which already 
seemed present realities, to the assurance of tone on the part of 
him who evoked them, Columbus perhaps mingled the recital of 
an intrepid yovith passed upon the seas in bold explorations, in 
perilous deeds ; and this part of his discourse, wherein there was 
so much to cause admiration and enthusiasm, made perhaps a 
special impression on the timorous Beatrix. Out of pity and 



ON COLUMBUS. 1 37 

sympathy for the intrepid seafarer, so young of heart despite the 
premature bleaching of his locks, her mind yielded to the fas- 
cination of this strange promiser of kingdoms, and a vague pres- 
age of greatness and glory thrilled her. 

" These fancies of ours with regard to the second and last 
love of Columbus recall to us, without our wishing it, the 
admirable recital in which Othello recounts to the venerable, 
grave, and reverend signors of Venice how he learned to love 
Desdemona, and was loved by her in return. Should Columbus 
have ever needed to vindicate his power over the mind of 
Beatrix Enriquez, and to declare by what arts he had caught 
the maiden in the toils of love, the words of Othello would have 
supplied him with a most touching defence. 

" Othello. Most potent, grave, and reverend seigniors. 
My very noble and approved good masters, 
That I have ta'en away this old man's daughter 
It is most true ; true, I have married her ; 
The very head and front of my offending 
Hath this extent, no more. Rude am I in my speech, 
And little blessed with the set phrase of peace ; 
For since these arms of mine had seven years' pith, 
Till now some nine moons wasted, they have used 
Their dearest action in the tented field ; 
And little of this great world can I speak. 
More than pertains to feats of broil and battle. 
And therefore little shall I grace my cause. 
In speaking for myself. Yet, by your gracious patience, 
I will a round, unvarnished tale deliver 
Of my whole course of love ; what drugs, what charms, 
What conjuration, and what mighty magic, 
(For such proceeding I am charged withal) 
I won his daughter with. 

****** 

I do confess the vices of my blood, 
So justly to your grave ears I'll present 
How I did thrive in this fair lady's love. 
And she in mine. 

" Duke. Say it, Othello. 

" Othello. Her father loved me ; oft invited me ; 
Still questioned me the story of my life, 
I From year to year ; the battles, sieges, fortunes. 

That I have passed. 

I ran it through, even from my boyish days, 
To the very moment that he bade me tell it. 
Wherein I spoke of most disastrous chances, 
Of moving accidents, by flood and field ; 



138 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

Of hair-breadth 'scapes i' the imminent deadly breach ; 

Of being taken by the insolent foe, 

And sold to slavery ; of my redemption thence, 

And portance in my travel's history, 

Wherein of antres vast, and deserts wild, 

Rough quarries, rocks, and hills whose heads touch heaven, 

It was my hint to speak, such was the process ; 

And of the Cannibals that each other eat. 

The anthropophagi, and men whose heads 

Do grow beneath their shoulders. These things to hear. 

Would Desdemona seriously incline : 

But still the house affairs would draw her thence ; 

Which ever as she could with haste dispatch. 

She'd come again, and with a greedy ear, 

Devour up my discourse : which I observing. 

Took once a pliant hour, and found good means 

To draw from her a prayer of earnest heart, 

That I would all my pilgrimage dilate. 

Whereof by parcels she had something heard 

But not intentively : I did consent ; 

And often did beguile her of her tears, 

When I did speak of some distressful stroke. 

That my youth suffered. My story being done 

She gave me for my pains a world of sighs : 

She swore : In faith, 'twas strange, 'twas passing strange ; 

'Twas pitiful, 'twas wondrous pitiful : 

She wished she had not heard it ; yet she wished 

That Heaven had made her such a man ; she thanked me ; 

And bade me, if I had a friend that loved her, 

I should but teach him how to tell my story. 

And that would woo her. Upon this hint, I spake ; 

She loved me for the dangers I had passed ; 

And I loved her, that she did pity them. 

This only is the witchcraft I have used.* 

It did not occur to the mind of Shakespeare to bring- upon 
the scene the loves of Columbus and Beatrix, otherwise who 
knows what new melodies he would have known how to draw 
thence ; in what manner the threads of this love would have 
entwined themselves in his master hand. The disentangling of 
them proves very difficult to us, who are not aided by the ex- 
pedients of the renowned poet ; to us, the slaves of systematic 



* Shakespeare's " Othello," act i., scene 3. I have not confined myself strictly to 
the quotation as contained in Signor Lazzaroni's " Cristoforo Colombo," but, on ac- 
count of the aptness of the quotation, I have given it with slightly increased length 
and fulness. 



ON COLUMBUS. 1 39 

prejudices or lawless enthusiasm, and placed in the straits of 
historical contradictions. 

" Count Roselly transfuses, as we have said, the lifeblood into 
such a question, and makes the debated point shine with dazzling 
light ; and with him a squad of proselytes, quickened by the 
spirit of such a master, gave itself to the ransacking of libraries 
and archives in search of an explicit and decisive word, of an 
unquestionable document, which would put a seal on the world 
•of shrewd, splendid, and reasonable induction evoked by them. 
But archives and libraries have thus far obstinately refused the 
so greatly desired answer. It has not been proven that Columbus 
legalized his love for Beatrix, nor has it been established peremp- 
torily that it was concubinage. 

" Oviedo, Herrera, Ortiz de Zuniga, contemporary and non- 
contemporary historians, beset by those who impugn the lawful- 
ness of this union, assert nothing />ro or contra, pass over it, and, 
with expressions far from definite, leave the field open to con- 
troversy. 

" However, the not affirming is very different from denying, 
as one of Roselly 's* most active followers shrewdly observes ; 
besides, one ought when in doubt keep the safer course, con- 
formably to the legal axiom : the doubtfulness of a witness is to 
be interpreted in favor of the lawfulness of the cause, and ret- 
icence with regard to special circumstances is an indication of 
the publicity and notoriety of the fact. Even they who incline 
to believe this tie unlawful find their side weak, and strive to 
find a solution of the controversy in the existence of certain 
forms of marital relations that we may call civil, admitted and 
tolerated by the laws and customs of that time. Signor Pinilla 
treats this matter very precisely, and it will serve to cite here a 
translation of his words. He begins by saying that the defenders 
•of the ecclesiastical marriage of Columbus and Beatrix ' have 
persisted in discussing a thing that does not belittle or throw 
the least shadow upon the life, honor, lustre, and halo of Colum- 
bus.' He, however, omits mention of his devoutness, which is 
the war-horse of his opponents. 

Putting aside thus the real question, one understands that 
they do not succeed, nor will they ever succeed, in understanding 



* Aw. A. Dondero, " L'Onesta di Colombo," ecc, Genova, 1877. 



I40 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

each other ; but he (Pinilla) goes on : ' Count Roselly is a man 
of very great genius and vast knowledge, but in this contest he 
forgets what was, at least in Spain, the society of the fifteenth 
century in the matter of morals, inasmuch as they relate to 
marriage and to the constitution of the family. With regard to 
this point, let us hear a priest of irreproachable morals and great 
knowledge.'* 

" ' The ideas of our predecessors by no means resemble our 
own, and they would surely have been scandalized and deemed 
us barbarians did they know them. To have a son, even if not 
born in wedlock or not recognized by the law, was for the 
common weal, and so the laws did not consider him of condition 
inferior to them that were born by a lawful wife (before the 
Church), nor did they degrade him, or repute him unworthy of 
public office, or to succeed to the property of his father. They 
merel}' required that the sonship be certified, and this was wont 
to be done by the sponsors on the day of baptism, or publicly in 
the junto, according to the formalities prescribed by the statutes. 
The father, instead of being ashamed of them, treated them with 
regard equal to that shown the legitimate, and counted on them 
as useful members of domestic society. The laws imposed upon 
mothers the burden of feeding and educating both one and the 
other. ' t 

All this goes to prove, from the condition (not despised) of 
the offspring, the relative morality of the parents, and the bond, 
though unblessed and not perfectly legitimate, that united them. 
Hear him (Pinilla) further : ' Let Count Roselly and his sup- 
porters, then, see how Beatrix suffered nothing in her character 
or nobility in not being before the Church:]: the wife of Chris- 
topher Columbus ; and that despite this he might fitly call her 
his wife, as he a hundred times over called Fernando his son.' 

Wherefore Count Roselly cannot be ignorant that concubin- 
age was a perfectly legitimate act, not only because tolerated,^ 
but even authorized in explicit dispositions of our forensic legis- 
lation. It was not a vague, indeterminate, arbitrar}^ bond, says 



* Pinilla here quotes Martinez Marina, " Ensayo historico, critico, sobre I'antiqua 
legislacion," etc., de Leon y Castilla, sez. 206. 

f Pinilla, " Colon en Espafia," cap. viii. 

J The wife who received the blessing was veiled, and observed all the rites of the 
Church. 



ON COLUMBUS. I4I 

the above-quotea author, but was founded in a contract of friend- 
ship and companionship, the principal conditions of which were 
permanency and fidelit3\ In our juridical history, according to 
the statutes and customs, three kinds of bond between man and 
woman were known and authorized by law : marriage in facie 
ecclesics (solemnized during mass), " the marriage by promise, 
and concubinage. Whether the marriage of the Genoese navi- 
gator and Beatrix Enriquez was of this last class, or was a mar- 
riage by promise — i.e., a marriage of conscience — we shall not 
stop to discuss." " The words of the will lend themselves to one 
and the other opinion. However, whichsoever of the two kinds 
of union was that of which Don Fernando was the fruit, it does 
not lessen the merit, the honorableness, the fame or good name 
of Christopher Columbus ; none of them would belittle his glor}^ 
nor the nobleness of Beatrix Enriquez, nor the estimation, pre- 
eminence, and esteem which his son Fernando enjoyed and de- 
served." ' * 

Note. — This view of the subject is confirmed by Leonard Shelford, of the Middle 
Temple, Barrister at Law, in his able work on the " Law of Marriage and Divorce," 
already quoted, in which he traces this form of marriage to the civil law, and after 
speaking of its qualities of permanency and fidelity, says : "Those characters show 
how widely mistaken we should be if we annexed the idea of immodesty or contempt 
to the name of concubine among the ancients, as we do in modern times" (pp. 10 ; 33 
Law Library, p. 31). In a foot-note of that work is given an extract from Gibbon's 
History, vol. v., pp. 399,400, in which this form of marriage as existing among 
the Romans is described, and it is stated that it prevailed from the age of Augus- 
tus to the tenth century both in the West and the East, and states " that this com- 
panionship was often preferred to the pomp and insolence of a noble matron."' The 
Christian Church struggled to abolish this form of marriage, but did no"t wholly suc- 
ceed until the enactments of the Council of Trent from 1545 to 1563. It must not be 
supposed, however, that the author of Lazzaroni's work, or any of the advocates of 
the regularity and legitimacy of the marriage of Columbus and Beatrix, classify their 
marriage under this head. On the contrary, they contend that the marriage of Colum- 
bus and Beatrix belonged to that class of marriages which is denominated as mar- 
riage /« /rtf/c ^rc/i?^/^. The trend of this argument in Lazzaroni's quoted a,uthorities 
is simply that the alliance of Columbus and Beatrix at worst was lawful, customary and 
honorable. But with Columbus's firm adherence to the strictest methods of the 
Church, no marriage less than marriage in facie ecclesia: would ever have satisfied 
him. Beatrix must have been no less rigid in so sacred a rite. 

" In all this defence they very properly are silent concerning 
that upon which their adversaries insist — namel}', the piety of 
Columbus. This, shouted from one side of the field, suffices to 



* Pinilla, above cited. 



142 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

dismount the batteries on the other. Notwithstanding this, 
Count Roselly and his companions on their part do not decHne 
the combat upon any field ; putting aside the holy water stoup 
and aspersorium, all arms are good even for them to repel the 
assault. 

' ' Apropos, it would be useful and pleasant to put side by side 
some of the reasons of Pinilla and of the others of his school, and 
those taken from every department of knowledge by the lawyer 
Dondero, who, with all the resources of his profession, combines 
much critical acumen, culture, and great convincing powers. 
But besides going to too great length, it would prove difficult to 
choose and to separate, considering the copiousness and the con- 
catenation of his arguments. 

" He proves, and to us it seems without doubt, that none of 
the contemporar}'^ or quasi-contemporary historians of Columbus 
explicitly declare against the legitimacy of his union with Beatrix 
Enriquez, and among the conjectural and positive proofs in favor 
of the same produces some historical testimonies of great 
weight. These are, it is true, of dates a hundred years or more 
subsequent to the times of the admiral, but the less credence 
which they would seem on that account to deserve is compen- 
sated for by the authority and the competence of the writers. 
It is, then, a ' principle of truth,' as the same Dondero writes,* 
* and every-day experience confirms it, that a just cause acquires 
steadily, as time goes on, new arguments and data, or helps that 
demonstrate its perfect justness ; whereas, on the contrary, a 
false cause, although masked at first under some appearance of 
truth, loses ground with the lapse of time, just as happens with 
genuine and counterfeit money.' So the union of Colum- 
bus and Beatrix since it began to be considered and discussed 
seems ever to put on a better face. The following testimonies 
could not be more favorable. One is of the Jesuit Alphonso 
Garcia, who died rector of the College of Ossuna, in 1618, and 
■who consequently lived at the epoch of the famous litigation for 
the succession to the entailed estates of Christopher Columbus, 
and who ought therefore to be better informed than any other of 
that which occurred in it, and of the status of Columbus and his 
sons. 



" L'Onesta di Colombo," ecc, p. 109. 



ON COLUMBUS. I45 

** ' Don Christopher Columbus,' he writes, ' first conqueror 
and discoverer of the Indies, was High Admiral of the same, 
Duke of Veragua, and Marquis of Jamaica. He married twice : 
first in Portugal, where he lived in his youth. Donna Philippa 
Moniz de Perestrello, by whom he had his elder son, Don Diego ; 
secondly, he married in Cordova, where he resided six years, a 
lady of that city called Donna Beatrix Enriquez de Arana, of the 
lineage of the nobles of this city, in the province of Biscay, and 
by her had Don Fernando Colombo, a chevalier of great under- 
standing, valor, virtue, and literary attainments, after he left 
the service of the Prince Don Juan, whose page he was.'* 

Not less conclusive is this other testimony drawn from the 
history of Father Pietro Simon di Parillas, printed at Cuenca in 
the year 1627, and dedicated to Philip IV., which is found in the 
library of Valencia. 

" In the fourteenth chapter is the following : ' Don Christopher 
Columbus came to Portugal, where he married, firstly, Donna 
Philippa Moniz de Perestrello, by whom he had Don Diego 
Colombo. Left a widower, he married a second time, in the 
city of Cordova, Donna Beatrix Enriquez, a native of that city, 
who gave birth to Don Fernando Colombo, who made himself 
so famous by his virtue as well as by his erudition. 'f The just- 
quoted testimony, which, though being that of sixteenth-century 
historians, might not merit too much credence, yet it assumes 
from circumstances a' special value. Let it be borne in mind 
that it was published during the celebrated litigation of the 
above-mentioned succession, which, reviving the memor}- of the 
glorious discoverer, caused the acts and the words and all the 
events, public and private, of his life to be by all spoken of and 
discussed ; genealogical trees were prepared, relationships and 
whatever else could be connected with the burning question of 
legitimate descent were examined. But let the reader make 
what account of it he may. We ourselves are merely readers in 
this controversy, and we prefer not to go beyond the limits of a 
simple statement. 

* " There exists in the Library of the Royal Historical Academy of Madrid, chapter 
xxxviii., a manuscript entitled 'General History of the very Illustrious and Loyal 
City of Cordova, and of its Noblest Families,' by Dr. Andr6 de Morales (this title is 
in Spanish), and which treats of the lineage and descent of the AdmiraJ Christopher 
Columbus. See Dondero, pp. iii., iii, 112." 

f Dondero, loc. cil., pp. 113, 114. 



144 ^^LU AND NEW LIGHTS 

" Among the many things that we have happened to read 
apropos of this matter, we shall never forget a phrase that escaped 
Columbus, in one of those moments in which the fulness of his 
sorrow and bitterness encumbered his style. Returning from 
his third voyage to the new world, his soul full of anguish, in 
irons, almost ready to succumb under the weight of so many 
misfortunes, persecutions, and accusations, worse than which 
they would not be able to invent in hell, he drafts a letter to 
influential and friendly persons, as it would appear, who still 
remained to him at the court. Having called to mind the years 
of his trying and loyal service, their stupendous results and un- 
worthy recompense, he touches upon the hardest sacrifice that 
can be demanded of the human heart — to wit, that of husband 
and father at the same time, and adds that to serve Spain, or 
rather their Highnesses, he had forsaken wife and children, and 
had never lived for them ; or, in other words, besides fatherly 
affection and domestic joys, he had sacrificed their most sacred 
interests to those of Spain (' Y deje muyer y hijos que jamas vi 
por ellos ').* 

"Wife? Not certainly Donna Philippa Moniz de Peres- 
trello, who had died in Portugal twenty years before. Sons ? 
Not certainl}^ Diego, the only one born to him by his first wife. 
How is it possible not to recognize in these expressions Beatrix 
Enriquez and his sons Diego and Fernando ? True, iniiyer, in 
Castilian, means also woman simply ; but that it would have 
been used by Columbus in that sense seems so absurd as not to 
merit confutation. In fine, whatever may be the attenuating 
circumstances taken from the different kinds of marital union 
tolerated then and even recognized by the laws, which were 
unable to prevent them, considering the great relaxation of 
morals, it would have been, it seems to us, a very bad recom- 
mendation in a proud and bigoted court to appeal to a love-tie 
unblessed and not really legitimate. It will be, perhaps, difficult 
to persuade the contrary of all that to good sense, even though 



* " The autograph exists in the archives of the Duke of Veragua, and .s a fragment of 
a letter in bad copy, and for that some give little weight to its expressions, as if 
Columbus would lend himself to the invention and coloring of lies in the drafts of 
his letters ! It begins, ' Gentlemen ;' but it is not known to what persons in author- 
ity it may have been addressed. It was published by Navarrete, with Diploma II., 
Document 87, Torre, ' Writings of Columbus,' p. 293." 



ON COLUMBUS. I45 

it appear refined gold to criticism. To leave his woman and 
young sons is equivalent, even among us, to leaving one's own 
lawful wife and children, as also the actual usage in speech is 
that where to woman is added the possessives, mine, thine, his, 
it is understood to mean the lawful wife. 

" And of this muyer, his abandonment of whom, in order to ex- 
pose himself to the dangers and to the hardships of the boldest 
of marine explorations, he cast up to Spain and to the court, he 
writes with tenderness to Diego, his firstborn, during one of his 
many periods of absence : ' Let Beatrix Enriquez be recom- 
mended to thee by the love of me, absent from thee, and regard 
her as thy mother ; let her have from thee ten thousand mara- 
vedis yearly besides those which she already holds from the 
butchers' shops of Cordova,' These words, full of respect and 
affection, were found in an ancient manuscript by Father Mar- 
cellino da Civezza, General Historiographer of the Franciscan 
Order, and another champion of the morality of Columbus.* 
You would say that these reappear to ratify, after about three 
hundred 3'ears, the genuine and specific meaning given by 
Columbus to the word viuycr in the above extract, and to warn us 
that personal and epistolary accounts, direct or indirect, must ex- 
ist, covering the period of his public life, between the admiral and 
Beatrix Enriquez, though history affords no indication of them. 
The words of this letter throw a new ray of light on a passage 
in the will of the great discoverer, which has and will be always 
a stumbling-block, and as the battering-ram of those who impugn 
the lawfulness of his second marriage. 

" In this last will, drawn up by him in Segovia, August 25th, 
1505, and probated in ValladoHd, March 19th, 1506 (the eve of 
his death), the admiral returns to recommend his Beatrix to his 
firstborn, Diego. 

" Having enjoined upon him to pay certain debts, of which he 



* " The manuscript Deiongs to the Collection Vargas Ponce, of the Library of the 
Royal Historical Academy of Madrid, in two volumes, with the title ' Columbus and 
his Sons, Memorandum of Documents.' Its discoverer maintains that the document 
in question is the authentic copy of an autograph letter of Christopher Columbus, 
under date. City of Burgos, April 23d, 1497, which contains certain other dispositions 
and reminders for Don Diego, and is referable, according to the date, to the year 
passed by Columbus in Spain between his second and third voyages to the New 
World." 



146 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

will find the memorandum attached, he goes on : ' And I order 
him that he have care of Beatrix Enriquez, mother of Don Fer- 
nando, my son ; that he see that she may be able to live becom- 
ingly, as one to whom I owe so much. And let this be for the- 
unburdening of my conscience, as this weighs heavily on my 
heart. The reason of this it is not allowed to write here.' * 

" It is a sad puzzle, nor is it easy to solve it. This perplexity 
of broken and ambiguous phrases, lending themselves to so many 
interpretations, is not unique in history. ' I pass into eternity, 
and I know why,' the dying Clement XIV. said ; nothing more 
was required to believe him the victim of poison, and that it was- 
administered to him by the Jesuits. How much wrangling has 
there not been and now is among interpreters upon the first canto 
of the ' Divina Commedia ' ! A like bequest in the context of a 
legal document, which prescribes the payment of certain pecu- 
niary debts, SQtvns prima facie to refer to property interests. 

" We point out in another chapter the persistent and serious 
anxiety of Christopher Columbus, already great and renowned ;, 
from all his glorious labors, there was not left to him, as he 
wrote the king, a roof to cover him ; and there was even want- 
ing to him wherewith to pay his host and innkeeper. These 
were not certainly the greatness and comforts implicitly prom- 
ised by him to the Enriquez de Arana, who trustingly confided to 
him, a poor and obscure man, their daughter, and — who knows ? — 
perhaps a dower, which he was to have returned to them a hun- 
dred-fold. And to what were reduced these seducing phantasms, 
of prosperity and glory, so dear to the heart of woman, that he 
had awakened in his Beatrix ? Into persecution and poverty. 
Columbus, returned gloriously from his first voyage, had per- 
haps scarcely time, amid official receptions and the preparations 
for the second expedition (from March 15th until September 
25th, 1493), to see again his Beatrix, and share with her and 
family the first moral fruits of his wonderful discovery. He had 
already done so much for them, that the De Arana and the wife 
had reason to be flattered in his naming, as his own lieutenant iii 
that new world just discovered, Diego de Arana. 

" In the embryonic fortress which first arose upon the virgin 
shores of Hispaniola, at the head of the first nucleus of a Euro- 



* Navarrete, Col. Dipl., IL, doc. 158 ; Torre, " Scritti di Colombo," p. 369. 



ON COLUMBUS. I47 

pean colony planted in the new world, the young Diego of the 
De Arana remained champion and guardian of the new posses- 
sions, with full powers. Such a beautiful prelude was to be fol- 
lowed by a sad catastrophe ; and when, after the second arrival 
of the admiral in the island, there came to Spain the dreadful 
news of the destroyed fortress and butchered garrison, the grief, 
the sorrow, and the fury of the Arana family can well be imag- 
ined. Was it not improvidence to abandon there, upon those 
unknown shores, a prey to faithless savages, amid the unwonted 
temptations of climate and demoralizing manners, a handful of 
men ill defended within and from without ? and upon Columbus 
the tremendous responsibility of it fell. As the reader can see, 
we are walking in a path hitherto untrod, in the hope of succeed- 
ing, if not in solving, the enigma of the will — at least, in simplify- 
ing it. Meanwhile, it appears to us that to make heavier still 
the heart of that glorious testator, the remembrance of the 
slaughter of Diego de Arana, and the sad consequences that 
thence followed for the sister, conspired. 

' ' A feud, after the style of the Middle Ages and like to Cor- 
dovan fierceness, would have sprung up among the De Arana 
against him who, in exchange for so many hopes, had brought 
back to them not even the body of their relative, done to death 
by the hands of savages ! The effects of this feud could well 
interpose between Beatrix and Columbus one of those barriers 
which are accustomed to arise between two loves, two allegi- 
ances, by reason of mediaeval party strife and family rancor. 
Behold, in our opinion, the probable cause of certain reticences 
in the admiral's writings, and of that strange silence observed 
with regard to his marital relations with Donna Beatrix Enriquez. 

' * But we have only made conjectures, desiring to leave to the 
kind reader the verdict, and to deduce thence the consequences. 
Resuming, with regard to the ambiguous sense that involves the 
testamentary provisions of the dying man, we believe that noth- 
ing can be definitively asserted that would exclude more or less 
specious objections on one side or the other. 

" Without arraying ourselves with those who would represent 
Columbus as impeccable, although forced in the case by a hun- 
dred favorable appearances to believe him such, we advise the 
not trusting too much for his condemnation to the ambiguous- 
ness of the wording of his will. Given that as a man he might 



148 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

have sinned, his devout and honorable character, but, above all, 
his extraordinary piety, would have led him, it appears to us, to 
make timely atonement for his fault rather than to wait to repent 
him of it till the last moment of his life. If he did not believe it 
such, nor deem that he ought to make amends for it in twenty 
years, to what purpose express sorrow for it then, in a public 
act, to the disgrace of his own sons and the scandal of all who 
had perhaps forgotten it or never known it, and to the discredit 
of the beloved woman he left behind, and of him who was born 
of her ? To what purpose, we say, such ill-advised, useless, 
cruel publicity ? If upon this enigmatical testamentary docu- 
ment, by which the impugners of the legitimacy of the second 
marriage of Columbus strengthen themselves, the question 
were proposed to the courts, it would not be a lost cause." 

The brilliant and captivating effect with which Lazzaroni has 
introduced those quoted passages from Shakespeare's " Othello," 
to show how Columbus may have wooed and won Beatrix, from 
the example of the Moor winning the love of Desdemona and 
marrying her, has suggested to me the introduction here of 
some passages from a historical novel, entitled " Columbus and 
Beatrix," by Constance Goddard Du Bois, a niece of Mrs. 
Admiral Dahlgren. to whom she has dedicated her book. This 
is a practical demonstration of the parallel between the marriages 
of Othello to Desdemona and of Columbus to Beatrix. But, 
first of all, the author tells us, in her preface, in graceful yet 
forcible language, what she thinks of the denial of the marriage 
of Columbus and Beatrix. Her judgment is the natural, instinc- 
tive, and almost inspired decree of refined and cultured woman- 
hood that Columbus and Beatrix were innocent — that they were 
man and wife. 

The object of this work is to attempt the reparation of an 
injustice which history has done to a noble and long-suffering 
woman. Beatrix Enriquez has been denied her lawful position 
as the wife of Columbus by writers from Humboldt and Irving 
to the tourist, who publishes his impressions of a few weeks' so- 
journ in Spain ; and the illicit connection of Columbus with a 
beautiful lady of Cordova has been expatiated upon in every 
tone of impartial narrative and jesting allusion. The slander is, 
however, of modern origin. Although Columbus was loaded 
with calumny during his lifetime, no one dreamed of denying his 



ON COLUMBUS. I49 

connection by marriage with the noble house 01 Arana, or of 
questioning the legitimacy of his son Fernando. 

" It was not till an obscure lawyer at a later time raised a legal 
quibble about the matter, for the purpose of gaining a suit for a 
client, that the idea was suggested ; and that it was repugnant to 
the facts of history is evident, since the unscrupulous attorney lost 
his case and the affair remained forgotten until 1805. Napione, 
followed by Spotorno and Navarrete, revived the unwarranted 
assumption with eagerness, as throwing a new light upon the 
character of Columbus. 

The only apparent support to this theory of an illicit con- 
nection is the fact that Columbus in his will mentions Beatrix 
Enriquez by name, without adding the title of wife, and adds 
that in recommending her to the care of his heir he eases his 
conscience, since he is under great obligation to her, ' the reason 
of which,' as he says, ' it is not expedient to mention here.' 

" Out of this weak material tlie web of falsehood has been 
spun. Without following the discussion in its full extent, the 
argument of common sense may be applied in Beatrix's justifica- 
tion. It is known that her two brothers (some say a nephew 
and a brother) sailed with Columbus upon two of his voyages in 
a distinguished position of trust under the admiral. Would the 
sons of a noble house thus condone their sister's dishonor ? 

" The mystery involved in Columbus's allusion to Beatrix, 
without giving her the title of wife, is supplemented by the 
singular fact that in the most important crises of his life she was 
absent from his side or unmentioned. The theory, upon which 
the following story is constructed, offers an explanation which is 
maintained to be more deserving of credence than that of 
Spotorno, since it fits every subsequent event in the life of 
Columbus with the congruity of a historical fact. It is not the 
reputation of Columbus that is at stake. History, while accept- 
ing his offence, has readily excused it — ' He was a man of his 
times,' forsooth; but the beautiful young Beatrix Enriquez, 
whose life, linked to his, was undoubtedly a sad one, should be 
delivered from unmerited reproach ; and the open-minded student 
of history, as well as the enthusiastic champion of slandered inno- 
cence, should unite in rendering a tardy justice to her memory." 

As was to have been expected, the authoress relates how 
Columbus had been introduced to the family of the Aranas by 



I50 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

Geraldini. The wealth of the family had been squandered by 
its present head, the father of Beatrix, in vain efforts to acquire 
immense wealth by the discovery of the philosopher's stone. 
Columbus had met Beatrix, both in prayer, before altar and 
shrines of the Cathedral of Cordova. It was well known in the 
city that he had a petition to the sovereigns which had long 
been deferred. Don Fernando Enriquez had been prostrated 
with grief at the sudden death of an aged and wealthy suitor for 
the hand of Beatrix, and by the rejection of another by the 
maiden. Beatrix lived a secluded life, but she had learned to 
venerate the devout and prayerful stranger whom she saw so 
often in the cathedral, and concerning whose mysterious aspira- 
tions so many conjectures were indulged in. Geraldini had 
interested, but had failed to convince his friends of the truth of 
Columbus's theories. Columbus informs the careworn father, 
this dreamer after the philosopher's stone, through his young 
son, Don Pedro, to whom he had been introduced by Geraldini, 
of his own skill. ' Will you not tell him for me that Cristoval 
Colon, a Genoese, desires to make his acquaintance ? I have no 
intimate knowledge of alchemy, yet I am versed in astrology as 
well as cosmography and astronomy, and I could tell him much 
that he would be glad to hear.' An interview takes place be- 
tween the aged father of Beatrix and Columbus, in which the 
former eagerly asks, ' Have you founji it ? Do you know, and 
will you impart the secret of the philosopher's stone ? ' 

" Colon shook his head. ' I hardly believe that nature will 
yield that secret to our most ardent search, ' he answered ; ' but 
I know a greater one, from which will flow results still more 
surprising. After years of research as laborious as your own, 
but guided by divine inspiration, I have reached with absolute 
certainty the conclusion that across the western sea there lies a 
path, eas)^ enough to the adventurous mariner, which leads direct 
to Manghay and Cathay, the kingdoms of the Khan, and the land 
of Zipanga, famous for its wealth of gold and precious stones. ' 

" ' I have heard of that,' said Enriquez, impatiently. ' Rodrigo 
and Geraldini have wearied me with this talk of yours about 
cities of gold and temples of ivory. If the king grants your 
petition for ships and men, and you go forth and possess it in 
his name, what is that to me? Will it further my discovery, 
which is of greater worth to me than the realms of the Kha 



ON COLUMBUS, I5I 

" ' Yes,' answered Colon, ' I care little for the wealth I shall 
win, except for the purpose to which I shall apply it — the pur- 
chase of the Holy Sepulchre from the hands of the infidels. This 
lies as near my heart as your precious discovery does to yours ; 
but I hope to possess more than enough to equip an army to 
ransom the Sepulchre at the highest price the Soldan may put 
upon it. The surplus shall overflow to meet every demand of 
duty and friendship — to you first, if close relationship shall war- 
rant it. Senor Don Enriquez, I ask you to bestow upon me your 
daughter Beatrix in marriage.' 

" Enriquez was astonished beyond measure. His mind quickly 
reviewed the words of the Italian, and all that he had heard of 
him and of his pretensions since his coming to Cordova. He 
was disposed to believe in his theory, and he was impressed, as 
the scholarly Geraldini had been, with the grandeur of his views. 
The proposed connection with himself placed the matter in a 
new light. It Avas through his daughter's marriage alone that 
Enriquez had hopes of acquiring the fortune he coveted. Since 
Don Francisco's death he had looked in vain for the suitor who 
should unite wealth and generosity with a sympathy for the 
views and pursuits of the alchemist. Garcia de Silva would 
inherit a competence which his extravagant tastes would spend 
on every' object rather than the, purchase of chemicals and costl}' 
books for his father-in-law. Placing himself first, as he always 
did in such considerations, Enriquez did not consult the probable 
wishes of his daughter, or consider that the younger man would 
be more likely to win her heart. 

" * I will not refuse you, Senor Colon,' he said ; ' neither can 
I give you much encouragement. Our family is one of the most 
ancient in Cordova. My sons would look higher for a husband 
for their sister, but other things than rank are to be considered. 
Wealth is a necessity, a generous spirit, such as you have already 
manifested, being combined with the power to give, for I will 
not deny that my fortune has been spent, worthily but as yet in 
vain, and I need money. Fill my hands with the golden treasures 
you promise, and my daughter shall be yours.' 

" Colon smiled with a lofty pity for his impatient greed. 
* Years as well as floods may roll between me and the distant 
•shore, which I behold with the eye of faith,' he said. ' The 
maiden would not wait for me. A younger suitor would claim 



152 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

her. You would part us, who are destined for each other, and 
to what purpose, and to what purpose ? Only to oppose your- 
self to the greatest good that fortune has ever offered to you — 
connection with the discoverer of more than the philosopher's 
stone — one whose name, as the instrument of Heaven, is to 
resound through all the centuries to the utmost limit of time.' " 

Columbus meets Beatrix under the friendly invitation of her 
father to visit the Enriquez mansion as a friend who is always 
welcome. She stands in awe of him, while venerating him. 
Even a suspicion, a temporary suspicion passes through her 
mind that he might have been the cause of the death of Don 
Francisco Hernandez ; but her respect, her growing interest in 
the stranger, who had now become a friend of her family, and 
her sympathy in his deep religious sentiments and in his vast 
aspirations, enable her to cast it off. 

" ' Why did you flee from me?' asked Colon, in a tone of 
tender reproach, as he joined her. 

" ' I do not know,' answered Beatrix, her heart beatings 
quickly. ' It seemed to me that you were changed. In the 
cathedral T was not afraid, though I saw you for the first time. 
It must be that I feel my guilt in having suspected you of a 
dreadful crime.' 

" ' Let us not speak of that,' interrupted Colon; 'that may 
well be forgotten. Let no suspicion henceforth come between 
us. I am changed only because a breath of happiness has blown 
over me, reviving hopes and feelings which I thought were long^ 
since dead, as a spring shower revives the flowers in your garden. 
Do you think, Beatrix, that a woman of youth and beauty could 
learn to love me ? What would she answer me should I ask her 
to be my wife ? ' 

" Beatrix attempted no reply. 

" ' You are the only woman I could wish to wed,' continued 
Colon. ' You are free from frivolity and selfishness, you are 
gentle and patient, religious, and capable of noble emotion. 
Heaven has led me to you as the footsteps of a wanderer are 
directed in the desert to the one spot of verdure and fertility 
where he may rest, before he leaves it for a further weary march 
over burning sands beneath a sky of brass. Your tender heart 
will not refuse this solace to one who needs your companionship 
and love. You will not sa)'^ me nay.' 



ON COLUMBUS. 1 53 

" This was not the impassioned wooing of a youthful lover, 
but it appealed to Beatrix's lifelong habit of self-sacrificing devo- 
tion to interests other than her own. Pedro (her brother) had 
told her in a few words the story of the Italian's life, and she 
had been thrilled with pity and admiration. Where others de- 
rided, she was ready to believe and uphold. 

"'Tell me about yourself, Seiior, ' said Beatrix, making no 
direct reply. ' How can I help you ? ' 

" Colon took a seat beside her in the shadow of a pomegranate- 
tree, where a nightingale was singing. The moon cast ara- 
besques of shade through the leaves upon the sand at their feet 
and the whitewashed wall of the house before them. The 
brooding silence of the summer night was full of peace. 

" ' Let me enjoy these halc3^on days while they last,' exclaimed 
Colon. ' It is a moment's calm for a shipwrecked mariner, a 
truce from misfortune, which Heaven grants. Ah, Beatrix, the 
Virgin blessed her worshipper when she led his steps to thee ! ' 

Then he began the story of his great ambition, which was 
to be fulfilled, like a Delphic prophecy, both more and less com- 
pletely than he hoped. It was not of a new world that he was 
dreaming, nor did he imagine that the purpose which inspired 
the enterprise with the sacredness of a crusade — the conversion 
of the heathen and the final crowning of the whole by the rescue 
of the Holy Sepulchre with the treasures of the Indies — should 
fail of fulfilment and remain a forgotten dream. • As he unfolded 
it to her, it seemed to Beatrix the grandest project a mortal 
could conceive. She did not discredit the element of the super- 
natural which Colon everywhere recognized in the leadings of 
his life. When he again referred to their meeting as ordained 
by the divine will, Beatrix's heart was filled with a conviction 
that he spoke the truth. What higher fortune could there be 
than an alliance with this messenger of Heaven ? Her eyes shone 
with tears of sympathy for the man who had been despised and 
misunderstood, derided and neglected. She could console him 
for the past and inspire him with strength for the future. When 
Colon ceased speaking, Beatrix gave him her hand. 

" ' It is yours,' she said, with a smile which was a benedic- 
tion." 

In a subsequent chapter the marriage ceremony is related. 
" The marriage service took place in the cathedral, attended by 



154 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

priests and acolytes, and by a throng of the friends and acquaint- 
ances of the bride, although her father and younger brother 
alone represented the family. It was a grief to Beatrix that her 
husband should be thus sHghted by her relatives, but Colon was 
unconscious of the intended affront, or indifferent to it. The 
two Geraldinis were at his side, and many young nobles of the 
court were present, who had been drawn to the wedding by curi- 
osity and the fame of the bride's beaut}^" 

There are so many periods in the life of Columbus in regard 
to which the facts are meagre, that historians, biographers, and 
even the writers of historical novels have indulged largely in 
conjectural explanations of those periods thus involved in uncer- 
tainty. Constance Goddard Du Bois, while stating that the 
motif oi her book* was gained from Roselly de Lorgues' " Life 
of Columbus," accounts for the separation of Columbus from 
Beatrix for a considerable portion of time after their marriage, 
and especially during his last years, his final illness and death, by 
conjectured religious vows and a monastic alliance, in aid of 
his great religious mission as the Christ-bearer, that had inter- 
vened. Such instances have occurred in the lives of married 
persons by their mutual consent and embracing a religious 
vocation, and with proper ecclesiastical sanction. Columbus, 
according to this theory, became a Franciscan monk. There 
are not wanting authentic facts tending to support this view. 
His well-known partiality for the Franciscans during his entire 
life ; his intimacy with the prior, Juan Perez de Marchena, and 
monks of the Franciscan Convent of La Rabida, and the immense 
obligations under which he stood to them, and still more with 
that other Franciscan monk, Antonio de Marchena, who had 
befriended Columbus from his first arrival in Spain and sailed 
with him as astronomer on his second expedition ; his coming 
from his ship, on return from the second voyage, wearing the 
habit of the Franciscans, a fact which shows that he carried that 
monastic dress with him on his voyages and wore it in his private 
quarters ; his publicly wearing the Franciscan habit, cowl, and 
girdle in the streets of Seville, where Las Casas relates that he 
met him thus dressed, and his wearing the same during his 
entire visit at the house of the worthy curate of Los Palacios ; 



* "Columbus and Beatrix." p. ix. 



ON COLUMBUS. 155 

his being attended in his last illness and death alone by the Fran- 
ciscans ; his burial by them in their convent vaults at Vallado- 
lid ; his being again interred in their convent on the removal of 
his remains to Seville — these and other circumstances go far to 
give probability to the theory. The secluded life of Beatrix, who 
is never known to have left Cordova or to have taken any part 
in public affairs, even in the triumph of Columbus at Barcelona, 
and the traditions concerning her piety, are in unison with the 
same, and tend more or less to suggest that by mutual consent 
and with ecclesiastical sanction Columbus and Beatrix embraced 
a form of monastic affiliation. Fernando, their only son, spent 
his life in study, was never married, and may have united with 
his father and mother in some similar affiliation, for he is always 
spoken of in the early histories as a man of great learning and piety. 
As I have stated, similar instances of religious dedication by 
married people have taken place and been sanctioned in the 
Church, even to our own day. Among several instances of that 
kind may be mentioned those of Lord and Lady Warner, in 
England, and of the Rev. Virgil Horace Barber and his wife, in 
America, all of whom were distinguished converts to the Catholic 
Church. Lord and Lady Warner, having been born and edu- 
cated as Protestants, both embraced the Catholic faith ; after- 
ward the husband became a priest in the Society of Jesus, and 
the wife became a nun in a convent on the Continent. Ample 
provision was made for their children, two daughters, who 
received the whole estate of their parents, were thoroughly edu- 
cated, and they, too, entered a convent at Dunkirk. In the case 
of the Barber family, the husband was an Episcopal minister of 
learning and reputation. He and his wife and all their family 
became Catholics. He became a priest in the Society of Jesus, 
and the wife became a nun. Their only son became also a Jesuit 
priest, and their four daughters became nuns.* It is not indis- 
pensable that the children should become members of religious 
organizations, provided a suitable provision is made for their 
support. This was done in the case of Fernando Columbus, 
who maintained a residence for himself at Seville, and erected 
therein a valuable library, f 



* " Catholic Memoirs of Vermont and New Hampshire," by Bishop de Goesbriand, 
pp. 62-163. 

j[ Winsor's " Columbus," etc., p. 603. 



156 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

The marriage contract, as manifested by the ceremony in the 
Cathedral of Cordova, between Columbus and Beatrix, described 
in the book of Constance Goddard Du Bois, is not a mere fiction^ 
it is a fact arising under the presumptions and proofs of circum- 
stantial evidence. Under the known and admitted facts in the 
case of Columbus and Beatrix, there arises a presumption of law 
that a marriage contract had been regularly entered into between 
them, and at the time it occurred neither the laws of Spain nor 
those of the Church required more. Such a marriage is good 
now by the common law, and is valid under the laws of the 
States of this Union. Let us refer to some New York legal 
authorities on this subject : " Marriage is a civil contract, 
and may be entered in any manner which evinces the inten- 
tion of the parties. Solemnization by a magistrate or clergy- 
man is not necessary," (Court of Appeals, 1862, Hayes vs. 
People, 15 Abbott's Practice Reports, 163.) "It is a sufficient 
actual marriage, . . . that the parties agree to be husband 
and wife, and cohabit and recognize each other as such." (Same 
case, 7 Abbott's New York Digest, 438.) In the case of Clayton 
and Wife vs. Wardell, decided in the New York Court of Appeals, 
Harris, Justice, said : " It is not pretended that there is any 
proof of such prior marriage, nor is such proof necessary. A 
valid marriage may exist without any formal solemnization. 
Like every other contract, all that is necessary for its 
validity is the deliberate consent of competent parties entering 
into a present agreement to take each other for husband and 
wife. . . . But in this State the common law exists ; and 
whatever may be thought of its wisdom, the existence of the 
marriage contract is a fact which may be proved, like any other 
fact, either by positive evidence of the agreement, or by evi- 
dence from which it may be inferred. ... In the case before 
us, it is not claimed that there is any direct evidence of actual 
marriage. For the want of such proof recourse has been had to 
secondary and presumptive evidence. It is attempted to estab- 
lish the marriage ... by evidence of cohabitation, of ac- 
knowledgment of a marriage, of the reception of the parties as 
husband and wife by their relatives and friends, and by proof 
of their common reputation." The principle upon which these 
decisions are based is, that while a marriage agreement is essen- 
tial, such an agreement may be legally inferred and presumed 



ON COLUMBUS. 15/ 

to have been entered into from the circumstantial evidence 
alluded to. There are few cases, however, so strong as that of 
Columbus and Beatrix, which, in addition to the ordinary cir- 
cumstantial evidence adduced in these pages, and reinforced by 
the extracts from Lazzaroni's work, possesses the notoriety, as 
an actual marriage, of having been recorded in current publica- 
tions and histories for a long period following the event. 



CHAPTER VI. 

"And farewell goes out sighing." 

— Shakespeare. 
*' Had I miscarried, I had been a villain ; 
For men judge actions always by events : 
But when we manage by a just foresight, 
Success is prudence, and possession right." 

— HiGGONs's " Generous Conqueror." 

" Applause 
Waits on success ; the fickle multitude, 
Like the light straw that floats along the stream. 
Glide with the current still, and follow fortune." 

— Franklin's " Earl of Warwick." 

The long and dreary years of delay and disappointment are 
now succeeded by fleeting days, hours, minutes of cogent prep- 
aration. It was originally intended that the expedition should 
consist of two vessels, but Columbus, in repelling a taunt of a 
Spanish nobleman that he was seeking the accomplishment at 
the expense of others, had agreed to bear one eighth of the cost, 
so that he now added a third vessel by the aid of the Pinzons of 
Palos and of the worthy prior of La Rabida. While it was 
apparently the joint expedition of Ferdinand and Isabella, the 
queen was the real patroness of the enterprise. The expenses 
of it were defrayed out of the treasury of Castile, and during 
her life few but Castilians were able to gain establishments in 
the new world. 

It is difficult at this day and under such altered circumstances 
to ascertain or record the exact thoughts that now arose in the 
mind of Columbus. But his past history, his belief in his divine 
destiny and mission, his highly wrought and sensitive nature, 
his close observation of all that concerned or affected his great 
undertaking, his quick and lively versatility of sensations and 
conclusions, might assure us of their unique and soaring char- 
acter. Dreams had become realities. The theories of a life- 
time now greatly spent were to be at last realized ; opinions 
were to become demonstrations ; the opulent empires of the 
Grand Khan, of Prester John, and other Oriental regions were 



ON COLUMBUS. 1 59 

to be united to the Church ; countless populations of benighted 
heathens were to see the light of the Gospel ; new worlds were 
to be brought to light and colonized ; boundless wealth and 
honors were to be his and those of his posterity ; the Holy 
Sepulchre was to be wrested from the hands of the infidels ; the 
prophecies of sacred and profane writers were to be fulfilled. 
The stranger, the visionary, and the adventurer now became the 
most noted and rising man in Spain. King and queen united in 
honoring and trusting him. The resources of the kingdom were 
placed at his use. Columbus felicitated the sovereigns on the 
grand results now almost within their grasp. And while Ferdi- 
nand looked with complacent but cool acquiescence on what 
would redound to his interest and glory if successful, and if dis- 
astrous could be disowned by him as not his measure, the noble Isa- 
bella felt that she was performing the will of Heaven, and earnestl}' 
desired the conversion of nations buried in darkness, and the 
extension of the area of Christendom. She manifested to Colum- 
bus all sympathy and honor. Of her own motion, she appointed 
his son Diego a page to Prince Juan, heir-apparent to the throne, 
an office only bestowed upon the sons of the most distinguished 
families, and she added the generous salary of 9400 maravedis 
for his support.* She lavished upon the father every mark of 
respect and confidence. The title of Don was bestowed upon 
him and his heirs, and those of viceroy and governor made 
hereditary in his famil}-. 

It seemed at first fortunate that Palos should have been 
selected as the port of departure for this momentous expedition. 
That town had, for some delinquency, become liable to supply 
the crown with two vessels ; there the voyage was to commence ; 
there the Pinzons, the good prior of La Rabida, Juan Perez, and 
other good friends of Columbus resided ; and thither he joyously 
sped his way, after taking a respectful and grateful leave of his 
royal friends at Santa Fe on May 12th. He was received with 
great joy at the Convent of La Rabida, and was an honored 
guest of the sympathizing and generous prior and his devout 
monks. On the morning of the 23d Columbus and the prior of 
the convent repaired to the Church of St. George at Palos, and 
here, meeting the summoned alcalde, the regidors and other 



Mr. Brownson's translation of Tarducci's " Life of Columbus," vol. i., p. 115. 



l6o OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

principal citizens, a notary read the royal command that the 
authorities of Palos should prepare two caravels in readiness for 
sea within ten days, and that the vessels and their crews should 
be delivered to Columbus, who was also authorized on his own 
account to add a third vessel for the expedition. The ships and 
sailors were placed under the immediate and plenary authority 
of the admiral, and the crews were to obey his commands, and 
go where he directed. But the admiral was cautioned to avoid, 
however, the Portuguese possessions on the coast of Africa. 
The crews were to receive the same wages as sailors in the 
Spanish naval service, to receive four months' pay in advance, 
and the admiral alone could discharge them. Royal commands 
were also issued to the local authorities and inhabitants of the 
seaport towns of Andalusia to supply provisions of every kind 
at fair prices. The outfits and provisions were declared free of 
export duties, and the ofificers and crews were exempted from 
criminal process during the voyage and for two months after the 
return. The royal commands met with a ready compliance, 
until it was discovered that the expedition was to sail into and 
across the Atlantic Ocean, and in quest of unknown lands. 
Heretofore the proposals of Columbus had been submitted to 
learned and thinking men, who were at least amenable to reason, 
facts, and demonstration. But now the common people — sailors, 
noted for their superstition, shipowners and purveyors, men of 
every class — were called upon to accomplish what so many of the 
learned had pronounced impracticable and fatally dangerous. 
They felt like victims led to the slaughter. The ships were 
refused, and no crews could be obtained. The air rang with 
reports, traditions, and stories of the dreaded ocean, now more 
than ever regarded as the Sea of Darkness. Many weeks were 
lost in fruitless efforts to procure ships and crews. The govern- 
ment had to be again appealed to, and orders again were issued 
for the impressment of ships and sailors for the expedition. Even 
the presence of an official, Juan de Peiiasola, an officer of the 
royal household, clothed with full powers, failed to secure suc- 
cess. 

The Pinzons now most fortunately came to the relief of the 
admiral, and Martin Alonzo and Vicente Yanez Pinzon, veteran 
mariners and citizens of wealth, standing, and influence, vol- 
unteered to embark in the expedition with themselves, their 



ON COLUMBUS. l6l 

ships and their crews.* Two other ships were impressed by 
Peiiasola, but the owners of one of them, the Pinta — Gomez 
Rascon and Cristoval Quintero — resisted the impressment, and 
fomented the prevailing tumults as much as possible. The towns 
of Palos and Moguer were agitated beyond description, disturb- 
ances resulted, and nothing could be accomplished. The im- 
pressed ships made no progress in getting ready for sea. The 
mechanics employed on the ships, when compelled to work, 
slighted their tasks, and finally abandoned them clandestinely. 
The sailors recanted their enlistments, deserted, and hid away. 
The opposition and obstacles now encountered were more diffi- 
cult to overcome than the delays and arguments of learned Juntos 
and courts ; now everything had to be done by main force, for 
the whole community was aroused to a state of frantic tumult. 
The favorable action of the Pinzons went far to allay the excite- 
ment and diminish the resistance. Columbus greatly reduced 
his demands, and by dint of force, persuasion, inducements, and 
the influence and example of the Pinzons, three small ships were 
procured, two of which were mere caravels or undecked vessels, 
having high prows and sterns, forecastles and cabins for the 
crews. The third vessel had decks and was named the Santa 
Maria, in honor of the patroness of the expedition, its previous 
name having been the Gallego. This was the admiral's vessel. 
It had been prepared expressly for the voyage, and bore the 
admiral's pennant. One of the caravels, the Pinta, was placed 
under the command of Martin Alonzo Pinzon, who was accom- 
panied by his brother, a good pilot, Francisco Martin Pinzon. 
The third, also a caravel, was placed under the command of 
Vicente Yanez Pinzon. Each vessel had additional pilots, men 
who became noted in the future history of the discoveries — Sancho 
Ruiz, Pedro Alonzo Nino, and Bartolomeo Roldan. Many 
friends and relatives of the three brothers, Pinzon, embarked in 
various capacities in the expedition. There was also an inspect- 
or-general of the armament, Roderigo Sanchez, a chief alguacil ; 
Diego de Arana, a near relative of his second wife, Beatrix 
Enriquez, and a royal notary, Roderigo de Escobar ; also a phy- 

* It was claimed afterward, in behalf of Martin Alonzo Pinzon, that he had some 
previous knowledge of a western route to Asia, derived from an ancient book at 
Rome, and had thought of following it up. But this statement, coming from his son, 
is not credited. (Tarducci.) 



l62 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

sician, a surgeon, some private adventurers, servants, and ninety- 
sailors — in all one hundred and twenty persons. But the prej- 
udices, fears, and opposition of the two communities of Palos 
and Moguer were not allayed ; they looked with amazement on 
these rash and foolhardy people, thus, some of them, voluntarily 
offering themselves as victims of a forlorn and desperate adven- 
ture, and others submitting to impressment in an expedition 
already doomed to ruin and death. Sad were the hearts of 
those who had relatives or friends embarked in this mad attempt 
to brave the terrors and dangers of the unbounded ocean. 

Quite different were the sentiments of Columbus. He re- 
garded this expedition as undertaken by the inspiration of 
Heaven, as a mission of religion and of Christianity, and, in a 
human aspect, as the highest effort of national patriotism. He 
realized more than ever the grandeur and solemnity of this 
crowning event. With sentiments of the deepest devotion he 
made his sacramental confession to the good prior, Juan Perez, 
and received the holy communion with profound piety ; and in 
this solemn act of religion he felt deep consolation in being joined 
by the officers and sailors of the expedition. 

But the whole community of Palos was cast down in the most 
profound sorrow, and the gloomiest forebodings were felt and 
expressed by the people and families of the town as to the fate 
of the adventurers. Officers and mariners had been taken from 
every family, and these regarded the uncertain and dread fate 
of relatives and friends as more affiicting than if they saw them die 
at home of natural deaths. The gloom experienced by the sailors 
was intensified by the tears and lamentations of their friends and 
relatives. Amid this universal consternation Columbus was 
calm, hopeful, confident, and prophetically triumphant. He saw 
his destiny now about to be fulfilled. He took his son Diego 
from the Convent of La Rabida and placed him with Juan Rod- 
riguez Cabezuda and Martin Sanchez, of Moguer.* The expedi- 
tion, with the Santa Maria, the Pinta, and the Nina (the last 
name signifying the baby), under the command of the admiral 
of the ocean seas, sailed forth from Palos on Friday, August 3d, 
1492. 

Though Columbus kept a journal at sea and recorded much 



* Tarducci's " Life of Columbus," Brownson's translation, vol. i., p. 123 



ON COLUMBUS. 165 

that he saw and felt, yet the world would wish now to know 
more of this crucial voyage, which resulted in the discovery of 
America. With a formality in keeping with the loftiness of his 
conceptions, he opened his journal, " In the name of our Lord, 
Jesus Christ." He reminds his sovereigns, as if writing a testa- 
mentary paper, of the glory and success of the Moorish war now 
ended, which he had witnessed ; of his revelation to them of the 
ocean path to India ; of the Empire of the Grand Khan ; of the 
desire of Christendom to unite the Oriental empires to the 
Church ; of his new proposal to attempt this great work by a 
western voyage across the Atlantic rather than an eastern journey 
over land ; recoimts his commission from the Spanish sovereigns, 
his patent of nobility, and his powers received from them ; his 
departure from Palos ; his purpose to devote his powers to the 
great task, to forget sleep in his close attention to the navigation 
of his ships until India was reached ; his purpose of making a 
correct map of the new countries discovered, and of writing each 
day the history of his progress. It is an interesting fact that 
Columbus prepared for his guidance on the voyage a map similar 
to but greatly improved upon that of Dr. Toscanelli, and that 
he located the land he expected to discover, which he supposed 
was Marco Polo's Cipango, about in the same meridian where 
Florida was afterward found.* 

The first course taken by the little fleet was southwest toward 
the Canary Islands, and thence it was the intention to sail due 
west ; but, before reaching the Canaries, the first exultation and 
triumphant joy with which he found himself the admiral of an 
expedition, with armament and equipment for discovering the 
western world, were changed into distress and indignation at 
finding the Pinta, on the third day's sail, in a disabled condition. 
The vessel gave signal of distress ; her rudder was broken and 
unhung. Columbus conjectured that this was treacherously 
contrived by the owners of the vessel, Gomez Rascon and Cris- 
toval Quintero, whose vessel as well as themselves had been, 
against their will, impressed into the service. It was the experi- 
ence and seamanship of the skilful captain of the Pinta, Martin 
Alonzo Pinzon, that prevented the susceptible and anxious crews 

:4L 

* Mr. Brownson's translation of Tarducci's " Life of Columbus," vol. i., p. 126, 
Irving, and other authors on our list of authorities. 



164 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

of all three vessels from becoming panic-stricken at this untoward 
accident. The rudder was secured with cords, and again secured 
the following day on the fastenings giving away. The ship was 
leaking. The fleet made direct for the Canaries, where they 
arrived on August 9th. After three weeks' delay it was found 
impossible to secure another vessel to replace the Pinta. A new 
rudder was made for her, she was repaired generally, and her 
lateen sails were altered into square ones. The crews were 
easily cast down and disheartened at every circumstance. The 
eruption of Teneriffe, now in full view, was regarded as an evil 
omen, and then a vessel arriving from Ferro reported three Por- 
tuguese caravels cruising among the neighboring islands. Colum- 
bus, by his cheerful words and manner, had to parry the ap- 
proaches of panic and divSaffection among his crews, and this he 
succeeded in doing with remarkable skill and success. But the 
presence of Portuguese vessels in the vicinity was looked upon 
seriously even by himself. He distrusted the Portuguese. He 
succeeded, however, in getting his fleet again under sail from 
the island of Gomera, on the morning of September 6th. Here 
again he met with a check, for a calm of several days detained 
him near land ; and when he again got under weigh, he found 
himself near Ferro, and in dangerous vicinity of the spot where 
the Portuguese caravels had been reported as sailing. On 
Sunday, September 9th, a favorable wind arose, and before night 
the last land of the Eastern Hemisphere was to his joy, but to 
the consternation of the sailors, out of sight, and the boundless, 
open ocean, the dread Atlantic, the fabled Sea of Darkness, was 
all before them, 

" in all time 
Calm or convuls'd — in breeze, or gale, or storm. 
Icing the pole, or in the torrid clime 
; Dark heaving — boundless, endless, and sublime, 
The image of eternity !" 

— Byron's " Childe Harold." 

Such was now the reality of sight and feeling with the sailors 
who first braved the western ocean. All seemed lost to them — 
their country, their friends, their families, their homes had been 
given up for a boundless waste of waters and of storms. Tears 
and lamentations broke forth on all sides, which the cheerful 
mien, the confident assurances, the brave and sincere exaltation 



ON COLUMBUS. I65 

of the admiral could scarcely assuage. He stood like a man of 
self-assured destiny amid the cowering forms of weaker men. 

Columbus now gave his orders for the conduct of the voyage. 
In case of separation the ships were to continue on the direct 
western route, and after making seven hundred leagues, the dis- 
tance within which he expected to reach land, they were to lay 
by for the night ; and, in order to lessen the growing fears of 
the mariners as they advanced farther and farther from their 
homes, he kept, besides the correct reckoning intended for the 
government and for history, another and an incorrect one, show- 
ing the distance traversed much less than it was in fact ; and 
this latter was open to the inspection of all. The Spanish sailors 
were thus by stratagem kept in ignorance of the distance they 
had sailed from home. On September nth, being then one hun- 
dred and fifty leagues from Ferro, a part of a large mast was seen 
floating, and this fact, while it inspired Columbus with hope, 
added to the fears of the sailors, who apprehended at once that in 
that vast and stormy ocean shipwreck was inevitably awaiting 
them. He exerted consummate skill in calming the blind appre- 
hensions of even the oldest sailors. 

Columbus, true to his mission and his promises, had vigilantly 
watched the course of the voj'^age and every circumstance, how- 
ever trifling, and continued to do so. By day and during much 
of the night he was at stern or compass box, taking in the prog- 
ress of the ships and the signs of the heavens and the ocean. A 
crisis seemed approaching. For some days prior to September 
13th the keen eye of Columbus observed that the deflections of 
the magnetic needle increased every day as he boldly sped his 
way westward, and on the 13th, while observing that the ships 
were encountering adverse currents and their location was now 
three degrees west of Flores, the variations seemed to reach a 
climax where they ceased, and the magnet pointed to the true 
north, such as it had never before pointed. In fact, the mag- 
netic north and the north-star stood in conjunction. With quick 
and unerring perception Columbus had discovered the line of no 
variations in the magnetic needle. Keeping his observations to 
himself, as his superstitious and frightened crews seized on every- 
thing unusual to increase their fears, he boldly and calmly but 
thoughtfully passed the mysterious line, and pressed his course 
still westwardly. But as he moved farther and still farther to the 



1 66 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

west, again he saw the magnet point farther and still farther 
away from the pole, as it had done prior to the eventful 13th. 
Then the variations moved from the northeast more and still 
more westerly toward the pole. On the 13th the magnet had 
pointed directly north — 

" So turns the faithful needle to the pole, 

Though mountains rise between and oceans roll." 

— Darwin. 

But now he discovered that deflections were reversed, and the 
magnetic line was moving farther and still farther away from the 
pole and from the true north. Though reticent and thoughtful, 
it was impossible to conceal the astonishing change in the deflec- 
tions of the magnet from the intelligent pilots or from the eager 
and fearful crews, who were ever on the alert for new alarms. 
Panic, already prevailing, now became universal. The fearful 
question was asked. What does this mean ? Were the laws of 
nature reversed in those remote and desolate regions of the earth 
and in the midst of this boundless and trackless ocean ? Had 
the forces of nature lost their power ? Were the stars no longer 
a guide, the needle no longer an index to fateful mariners on the 
deep ? What unknown influences were to decide the destiny of 
the ships and crews in that vast waste of waters ? Were they 
thus blindly to continue this ill-fated voyage in search of unknown 
lands, in an unknown ocean beset with such fearful phenomena ? 
Had the compass refused to the mariner its friendly and unerring 
aid ? How was their commander, this foreigner to Spain and 
Spaniards, who professed to converse with Nature and to know 
all her secrets, to explain this dread phenomenon ? 

The most unfriendly and reluctant historians have here ac- 
knowledged that Columbus made an important and startling dis- 
covery. Justin Winsor, the theory of whose book on Columbus 
and how he received and imparted the spirit of discover^', is 
based, as its title shows, on the assumption that there was noth- 
ing new in his great career, has admitted that ' ' his observation 
of this fact marks a significant point in the history of navigation." 
And again he says : " But it was a revelation when he came to 
a position where the magnetic north and the north-star stood in 
conjunction." Not onl}' must it be acknowledged that Colum- 
bus had now brought to light one of the unknown secrets of 
nature, but also that he, by the force of his ready genius, struck 



ON COLUMBUS. 167 

^pon and revealed the true theory and use of the discovery. 
Pressed by his panic-stricken crews, Columbus showed his famili- 
;arity with nautical science and a ready application of its princi- 
ples. He explained the line of no deflections of the magnet to be a 
meridian of longitude, a crucial or test line, and deflections from 
this meridian line might be found to possess sufficient regularity 
to furnish a method and means of ascertaining longitude — a 
method more certain than longitudinal tables, water clocks, or 
other methods. This view of Columbus was confirmed by an- 
other distinguished navigator, Sebastian Cabot, a few ^^ears 
later, when he crossed the line of no variations in approaching 
the northern Atlantic coasts of our Continent. It was at first 
supposed that Cabot was the first to discover this new phenom- 
enon, but the subsequent publication of the journal of Columbus 
gave that honor to the admiral. Various theories have since 
been started to explain the line on some other theory. Colum- 
bus endeavored to demonstrate his theory on his return voyage 
to Spain from his second expedition. He and Sebastian did not 
Jknow of each other's observations of the line of no variations. 
But Cabot kept his observations to himself as a supposed or 
-claimed secret, and Humboldt, as Winsor remarks, conjectured 
" that the possibility of such a method of ascertaining longitude 
was that uncommunicable secret which Sebastian Cabot many 
years later hinted at on his death-bed." Columbus freely com- 
municated the secret to his officers, pilots, and crews, when the 
prevailing panic gave way to renewed belief in the wonderful 
learning of the admiral, or, as Fiske remarks, " their faith in the 
profundity of his knowledge prevailed over their terrors." The 
permanency which Columbus attributed to the line of no varia- 
tions in 1492 has been studied now for four centuries, and 
science has discovered that the lines of deflection are not parallel, 
neither are they straight, though sometimes nearly so, and more 
or less inconstant. The line as then discovered by Columbus, 
at three degrees west of Flores, has shifted farther to the west 
since his day, and now the line of no variations is almost a 
straight line from Carolina to Guiana. The line, however, is 
now known to be sufficiently permanent to constitute for several 
years at a time a safe guide, when delineated on magnetic maps, 
for determining the longitude in any latitude. The quick and 
offhand explanation, which Columbus gave at a crisis in his first 



l68 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

voyage to quiet the fears of his men, has thus been confirmed by 
the subsequent scientific observations of four hundred years. 
" So science has come round," as Justin Winsor says, " in some 
measure to the dreams of Columbus and Cabot," though it is 
difficult to say that Cabot had any such theory that is known, or 
was ever divulged by him. Columbus was called a dreamer in 
his early years of seeking and delay, but it is hardly correct to 
apply the term dream to his method of applying the line- of no 
deffections as a method of determining longitude, now verified 
in modern science, as it would not be to apply it now to his pro- 
posals, in 1492, to discover a new world. The causes of those 
variations of the needle, and of the shifting westward of the line, 
are as much a mystery now as they were in the days of Colum- 
bus, in the face of modern scientific investigations. Colum- 
bus adhered to the last to what he had said to his sailors. He 
was mistaken in details then too wholly unknown to all the 
world. And even though he may have supposed the pole-star 
to be a moving star, and have attributed the deflections to that 
cause rather than to the needle itself, just as he supposed the 
lands he discovered to be a part of Asia rather than the land por- 
tions of another hemisphere, or may not have succeeded in de- 
termining the exact shape and size of the earth, such theories 
on his part are far from making a dreamer of the man, who 
opened the path to the rest of mankind which has led to more 
and greater discoveries both in geograph}^ and applied sciences 
generally than the achievements of any other man. It was on 
the same 13th of September that he thought he observed evi- 
dences of a great change of climate from signs around him, but 
this conjecture he exploded as he advanced, the first of men, 
across that unexplored ocean. His critics have yet to learn 
from the lives of Copernicus, Newton, and the Herschels that 
life is too short to achieve all things at once, and that 

" Life is short, and art is long." 

As the voyage progressed various indications of land were 
witnessed, and always occasioned great joy among the officers 
and men. Now a water wagtail, a bird of the land, hovered 
over the vessels. A meteor now flits across their path and 
plunges in the sea. Green weeds floating around the ships he 
thought indicated the vicinity of islands. They next encounter 



ON COLUMBUS. 169 

the trade-winds and the ships make fine progress with their assist- 
ance ; jet no one but Columbus knew the actual distance they 
had sailed westward. Now the temperature becomes more mild, 
the air more soft, the skies clear, and the fragrance of the groves 
and flowers of the lands they are approaching seems to them all 
to be quite perceptible. Other indications of land which they 
observed were the quantities of herbs and weeds, increasing as 
they advanced, some withered and others quite green, such, 
too, as grew in rivers and in fresh water. A live crab was found 
on one of the clumps of weeds. They saw a white bird such as 
grow in the tropics, and never sleep upon the sea ; also tunny 
fish. The sea water seemed to become less salty, the air purer 
and sweeter, great numbers of birds were seen, and the appear- 
ance of the northern horizon was thought to indicate the prox- 
imity of land. Columbus found that he had not traversed more 
than three hundred and sixty leagues, and his calculations placed 
Asia at a much greater distance. Great animation prevailed 
among the crews of the three ships, each one being ambitious of 
seeing land first, for the sovereigns had promised a pension of 
ten thousand maravedis to the man who first should descry the 
land. The Pinta was the fastest sailer, and was generally ahead. 
The sailors were frequently deceived by the apparent looming 
up of lands and islands, but this was caused by the peculiar 
appearance of the clouds on the horizon of that tropical region, 
though such conjectures have been partly confirmed by charts 
showing that breakers were seen in that part of the ocean in 
1802. Drizzling showers without wind were regarded by Colum- 
bus a favorable sign, but the soundings made did not reach bot- 
tom. He resolved to pursue the direct westward line, though 
he supposed he might be sailing between lands or islands which 
were not in sight. Why should he not turn from his westward 
course and seek them ? The hopes inspired by so many sup- 
posed indications of land were turned into disappointment, fear, 
discontent, murmurings. But as Columbus had from the begin- 
ning declared that land would be found by sailing due west, he 
firmly refused to deviate from that course. His religious faith 
in the guidance of Heaven was in all these difficulties an unfail- 
ing source of confidence and firmness. The only times when he 
was not at the poop or watching the compass were the stated 
hours at which he retired and locked himself up to make his 



I/O OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

appeals to Heaven, recite his office of devotion, and fortify his 
soul. As the vesper-time approached the ocean breezes wafted 
to heaven the notes of the " Salve Regina" and " Ave Maris 
Stella," devotional hymns, which he and his crews addressed to 
the Virgin Mother. His confidence, his firmness, and his untir- 
ing watchings, day and night, might under less appalling dangers 
have either inspired his crews with courage or at least have won 
their confidence. But the great length of the voyage, the re- 
peated failures of the signs of land, the favorable winds from the 
east which they regarded as the evil means by which they were 
carried each moment farther from home and farther into the vast 
wastes of ocean — all led the crews to the verge of mutiny. The}^ 
did not disguise their discontent ; they applied the most disloyal 
epithets to the admiral ; his arguments ceased to have effect on 
them, his authority was fast waning. They thought that the 
winds never blew from any other quarter than the east, so that 
when the winds veered to the southwest, on September 20th, 
the panic-stricken seamen felt some relief. The vast expanse of 
surface covered with floating sea-weeds, an area stated by Hum- 
boldt to be seven times larger than the whole of France— for 
they were ploughing through that vast prairie of sea- weeds, Sara- 
gosso Sea — still filled their minds with apprehensions, and what 
was at first regarded as a sign of nearing land was looked upon 
now as a forerunner of disaster. They thought the sea-weeds 
were getting thicker and more matted together, and that soon 
the ships would not be able to pass through them. The super- 
stitious sailors feared they could never return ; that the surface 
weeds concealed the immense sea monsters that would devour 
them and their ships ; submarine giants, the heroes of early 
nursery tales and sailors' yarns, were revived, to seize and feast 
upon them, and the mild winds suggested their becoming be- 
calmed in mid-ocean. Stories of whirlpools that would sud- 
denl}- draw the ships into their vortex and hurl them to the bot- 
tom, and even the fabled winged roc of the Arabians, the giant 
bird of the air, might seize, with its huge bill, not only seamen, 
but entire ships, and, ascending with them to the clouds, tear 
them to pieces and drop the fragments into the ocean. 

The fears of the sailors made them mutineers. Columbus 
acted with consummate courage and wisdom in such an unprece- 
dented crisis ; his calmness was admirable, his ingenuity in point- 



ON COLUMBUS. I/I 

ing out new signs of land was inexhaustible. While the men 
were stimulating their own imaginations to evil, some imagining 
that the water was growing shallow in mid-ocean and the 
ships might be stranded, others reviving the stories of ships 
becoming frozen up in the ice, and others speaking of quicksands, 
of hidden rocks, of a dead calm, and of the rotting of the ships 
and the perishing of the crews, he pointed out to them that the 
calmness of the ocean was an indication of the vicinity of land. 
On September 25th his arguments were aided by a heavy sea- 
swell, which dispelled at least their apprehensions of becoming 
becalmed and perishing from hunger. This he regarded as an 
intervention of Providence, and felt that, like another Moses, he 
was delivered with his people from the dangers of the sea. But 
his assurances to the men had but a temporary effect. They were 
getting farther every day from home, and handed over to the 
most cruel of fates, which might overtake them at any moment. 
The murmurs of the mariners grew louder with every league 
they made ; they began to cluster together in little knots about 
the ships, and vent against the admiral their discontent and anger. 

The admiral was, in fact, at their mercy. They could have 
murdered him or have compelled him to return to Spain, and 
this, too, perhaps just as he was on the point of realizing all his 
hopes. The rough sea of September 25th was followed by fine 
weather, and the ships were making good progress. Columbus 
had been studying his charts most anxiously in the endeavor to 
determine where they were. He sent one of his charts to the 
captain of the Pinta, Martin Alonzo Pinzon. They had much 
consultation together, and both Columbus and Pinzon thought 
that the great island Cipango could not be far off, though the 
former conjectured that the ships may have been carried out of 
the direct course by the currents. The Pinta and the Santa 
Maria were near together ; the chart had been returned to Colum- 
bus, who, with his pilot and several other old seamen, was en- 
deavoring to discover their location, when suddenly they heard 
from the Pinta the cries of land ! They saw Martin Alonzo 
Pinzon standing on the poop of the Pinta, crying with a loud voice, 

Land ! land ! Senor, I claim my reward !" To the south- 
west, about twenty-five leagues away, all thought they saw the 
land. Columbus, falling upon his knees, rendered thanksgiving 
to God, and he and Pinzon and their entire crews united in chant- 



1/2 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

ing the " Gloria in Excelsis. " Many seamen at the masthead or 
from the rigging saw the same object, which all took for the 
land, and Columbus turned his course in that direction ; but, 
alas ! on the arrival of morning the hoped-for land had disap- 
peared. The cloud had disappeared during the night. The hopes 
of the crews now sank more than ever. But the admiral, with 
unfailing confidence, again resumed the direct western course. 
From day to day new signs of land revived their fading hopes. 
The reckoning showed they had voyaged five hundred and eighty 
leagues from the Canaries, while, in fact, the true reckoning,, 
which Columbus kept, showed seven hundred and seven leagues. 
The former number was enough to frighten the crews, while the 
latter did not discourage Columbus. But as the signs of land 
disappeared, and the course of the floating weeds was from east 
to west, and the visiting birds had all departed, gloom again 
took possession of the minds of the sailors. 

All thought they had passed the lands which the signs had 
indicated, and even Columbus considered this quite probable. 
But in order to calm the minds of the now eager sailors, who- 
were constantly and on the slightest appearance crying out land, 
he announced that any one who should thus erroneously announce 
the sight of land should forfeit the reward ; and when Martin 
Alonzo Pinzon, on October 6th, proposed that the course of the 
voyage should now be changed to the southward, he still per- 
sisted in the direct west course. He also ordered the caravels 
to keep the west course in case of separation, that they should 
rejoin him as soon as possible, and at sunset and sunrise the 
whole fleet should endeavor to be near together, for those hours 
were most favorable for descrying land. It was another severe 
trial to Columbus when Martin Alonzo Pinzon began to lose con- 
fidence in the direct course pursued. The island of Cipango had 
not been found, though its estimated distance had been traversed. 
In deference for Pinzon's opinion, he slightly altered his course 
to the southwest on October 7th, thus yielding to the sailors* 
partiality for following the flight of birds ; and for three days on 
that course the encouraging indications of land increased.* 
Small birds and fish made their appearance ; a heron, a pelican,. 



* It is estimated that if Columbus had not thus altered his course, he would have 
landed on the North American continent, probably on the Florida coast. 



ON COLUMBUS. 1/3 

and a duck were seen, and all bound in the one direction ; fresh 
and green herbage floated on the tranquil sea, and the air was 
sweet and fragrant. But while the distance between the ships 
and home increased, the land did not appear ; all appearances 
were disheartening delusions ; the crews openly expressed their 
discontent, and turbulently clamored to return to Spain. The 
conspiracy had been forming for some time — nearly every man 
in the three crews had joined it. The three Pinzons were well 
aware of this, and while haughty and dictatorial in their bearing 
toward Columbus, and not perhaps absolutely disloyal, preserved 
silence. The officers of the crown, Arana, his wife's nephew, 
his own crew and pilots, were all in the plot. Columbus stood 
alone in mid-ocean ; alone loyal to sovereigns, to himself, to his 
mission. This part of his history is distinguished for consum- 
mate action and conduct. He had frequently exhausted all argu- 
ments and persuasions. He now asserted the full measure of his 
authority. He informed them that he had sailed across the 
ocean for the Indies, and the Indies he could and would reach ; 
that neither man nor devil could change his course, and as their 
complaints were vain, submission was their only course. At the 
same time he assured them of the assistance of Heaven in reach- 
ing the promised land. The effect of his deliberate courage was 
magical ; revolt hid its head before such personal virtues, and 
overpowering numbers yielded to a single will. 

The story that within a day or two before land was discovered, 
Columbus had promised the sailors to return to Spain unless 
land was found within three days, is rejected by historians ; it 
rests solely on the unreliable statement of Oviedo, and is not 
found in the admiral's journal nor in Las Casas' or other works ; 
it is wholly at variance from the dignified character of Columbus. 

In this crisis of discontent and mutiny the perilous and desper- 
ate situation of the admiral was .somewhat relieved by the in- 
creasing indications of land. His course was now due west. 
Fresh river weeds, then a green fish, such as frequent the rocks, 
then a fresh thorny branch or twig having berries, then a reed, 
a board, a carved staff — all in succession appeared to cheer up 
and exert a good effect upon the hopes of all. So deeply was 
Columbus impressed, even under such desperate circumstances 
and in such an appalling crisis, in which all was staked and all 
seemed lost to others, that when on the memorable evening of 



1/4 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

October nth he assembled his crew on the deck of the Santa 
Maria, to recite the vesper hymn of " Salve Regina," he followed 
the services with an address most characteristic of the man and 
most impressive upon his wayward and dejected hearers. Grati- 
tude to God for their preservation through such perils and 
travels, and for the frequent signs of land which had been given 
them, was his first sentiment. The promised land was near ! 
He renewed the orders given at the beginning of this momentous 
voyage, that after sailing seven hundred leagues the ships should 
not sail after midnight, as he regarded this more important now 
than ever ; he expressed his faith that land would be discovered 
that very night ; he ordered a most unceasing watch to be kept 
up at the forecastle, reminded them of the reward promised by 
the sovereigns to the one who should first see the land, and he 
promised to add to it himself a doublet of velvet.* Great anima- 
tion prevailed among the officers and crews. It was the courage 
of Columbus that had held them together ; but for him the}'' 
would have reversed their course and returned to Spain. He 
alone was the moral motive power that carrieci the ships west- 
ward. The vessels were making rapid progress under favorable 
winds, and the Pinta was ahead. Such was the effect of the 
speech the admiral had made to them, that not a man slept that 
night. He stood as usual on the roof of the cabin of the high 
poop of the Santa Maria ; his watch was that of a prophet, a 
seer, a man who felt his destiny accomplishing itself, 

"... the spirit . . . 
Undaunted . . . looks, 
With steadfast eye." 

— Mrs. Stoddard. 

His ever- watchful eye was the first to rest upon the land of the 
new world. It was about ten o'clock in the evening when he 
saw the glimmer of a light far distant. Calling Pedro Gutierrez, 
he inquired of him if he saw the light, and he answered that he 
did. Then, calling Rodrigo Sanchez, of Segovia, he asked him 
the same question, but the light had vanished. Again and again 
during this brave vigil the light appeared, and again disappeared. 
It seemed like a torch or lantern in a canoe, or carried in the 
human hand, for its motion was undulating. While he thought 



* Fernando Colombo, " Historia del Almirante," cap. 2i. 



ON COLUMBUS. I/J 

modestly of the circumstance, Columbus felt that his task was 
accomplished. Hour after hour passed away, when at two 
o'clock on the morning of October 12th, 1492, a gun from the 
Pinta announced the same land in sight. Well has this historic 
night been commemorated with a noble statue of Columbus by 
Samartin, erected in the Spanish Senate Chamber at Madrid, 
and bearing the inscription, 

" A las Diez de la noche en ii October 1492 
Tier r a /" 

A sailor named Rodrigo de Triana* was the first to see the 
land ; it was in the very direction where Columbus had seen the 
light on the land. All now saw the land distinctly ; it was two 
leagues distant. At the report of the gun on the Pinta, Columbus 
fell upon his knees, and with tears of gratitude thanked God for 
sustaining him to the end, and for enabling him to accomplish 
his mission. He sang with joyous heart the hymn of thanks- 
giving, " Te Deum Laudamus," in which he was joined by the 
officers and crews of all three vessels. In the midst of his exulta- 
tion, he preserved his prudence and good judgment. By his 
orders the vessels lay to, all the sails were furled except the lug- 
sail, and the ships were put in a state of defence ; the arms were 
cleaned and polished, and whatever might be the development 
of events in the morning, whether of conflict or welcome, all was 
readiness. The entire crew of the Santa Maria came forward to 
offer their congratulations to the chief, and to do him homage. 
Columbus retired to his cabin and awaited the arrival of the 
dawn with sentiments of devotion, gratitude, and joy. With 
these were mingled intense and tumultuous feelings, which are 
usually inspired by sudden even though expected success, by 
uncertainty as to the developments of the coming day, and by 
the brilliant hopes inspired by a great and unprecedented event. 



* I have given the name here as rendered by Mr. Irving. The Count de Lorgues 
and Dr. Barry state that the name of the mariner who saw the land first was Juan 
Rodrigo de Bermejo. Triana claimed the reward promised to the one who should 
first see the land, but it was adjudged by King Ferdinand to Columbus, as he had first 
seen the light on the land. Oviedo relates, but without authority, that Triana was so 
offended at being deprived of the reward, which he regarded as justly his, that he re- 
nounced his country and his faith, went to Africa, and became a Mohammedan. Mr. 
Irving discredits the story. De Lorgues and Barry do not mention it (Oviedo, 
" Cronico de las Indias," lib. ii., cap. 2 ; Irving's " Columbus." vol. i., p. 274). 



176 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

He noticed before retiring every minute sign — the fragrance of 
the groves on this virgin land, the vegetables floating from its 
shores, and the indications of its fertility. The morning light 
showed the newly found land to be the residence of man, just as 
the light he had seen on the shore the previous evening had indi- 
cated ; but what manner of men were its inhabitants : were they 
savages, cannibals, civilized men, or perhaps monsters, or some 
such strange race of beings as the maps of the Middle Ages por- 
trayed ? was this a part of the Continent of Asia, the outposts 
of the great empire of the Grand Khan, or the approaches to the 
dominions of the long-sought Christian prince, the Prester John ? 
or was this the famous island of Cipango, so abounding in riches 
and grandeur ? Such and many other similar thoughts rushed 
tumultuously through the mind of Columbus as he gazed toward 
this promised land, now found, but still buried in dimness and 
mist. 

It was Friday morning, October 12th, 1492, when an auspicious 
dawn revealed to the eyes of Europeans this beautiful island in 
the Western Hemisphere, which so many labors, sacrifices, and 
struggles had been made to discover. It was a land of majestic 
forests, reaching as far as the horizon ; a land of natural flowers, 
which perfumed the air, and of purest lakes, reflecting the land- 
scape and the heavens. A vast extent of level country was spread 
before eager eyes that had never seen this land before. But 
there is no feature of a new-found land so important, so signifi- 
cant, so startling, so full of past and future history, and so in- 
stinct with present and future consequences as the presence of 
man ! Columbus saw with eager eye human forms issuing from 
the woods in all directions and flocking to the shores ; they were 
perfectly naked, well formed, and even majestic in stature and 
carriage. They were overpowered with awe at the sight of the 
mighty canoes before them, the apparitions of a night. 

Columbus, followed by his staff officers, the captains of the 
other ships, and by the armed men of the crews, landed with due 
ceremony. He was clad in the scarlet mantle and other insignia 
of his high office of admiral of the seas and lands, and bore in his 
hand the royal standard of Spain as he descended into his boat. 
The two Pinzons, each with a banner emblazoned with a green 
cross, and bearing the initials of Ferdinand and Isabella and the 
crowns of the sovereigns, followed. All the officers and men 



ON COLUMBUS. 1/7 

were perfectly armed. It seemed like a moment only when all 
stood on the land. Columbus immediately fell upon his knees, 
and prostrating- himself before the Almighty, kissed the land he 
had just discovered. Three times with bending form he kissed 
the earth. Then rising, and drawing his sword, Columbus dis- 
played the royal standard, and calling around him the royal 
notary, the commissioner of marine, and the captains of the ships, 
took possession of the country in the name of the Saviour for the 
Spanish sovereigns. The notary by his order drew up the 
official proceedings in due form, and all present joyously and 
loyally took the oath of obedience to him as admiral and viceroy, 
and as the representative of the Spanish sovereigns. He named 
the country San Salvador, or Holy Saviour, in token of his 
gratitude to God, who had guided him to the new world.* 

" The dashing, 

Silver flashing 
Surges of San Salvador !" -f 

The words of the prayer so fervently uttered by Columbus on 
this historic occasion have been preserved, and are as follows : 
" Lord ! Eternal and Almighty God ! who, by Thy sacred 
word, hast created the heavens, the earth, and the seas, may 
Thy name be blessed and glorified everywhere ! May Thy Maj- 
esty be exalted, who hast deigned to permit that, by Thy humble 
servant. Thy sacred name should be made known and preached 
in this other part of the world." This prayer, by order of the 
Castilian sovereigns, was repeated by other discoverers in the 
new world, by such men as Fernando Cortez, Vasco Nunez de 
Balboa, Pizarro, and other Spanish founders of empires.:}: 

By direction of the viceroy, grand admiral, and governor- 
general, for now his well-earned titles and powers were vindi- 

* De Lorgues'and Barry's " Columbus," p. 159 ; Irving's " Columbus," p. 156 ; Ra- 
musio, vol. ii., folio i ; Robertson's " History of America," t. 1., Book II., p. 120 ; 
Oviedo, lib. i., cap. 6 ; Las Casas, " Historia Ind.," lib. i., cap. 40. 

f The precise spot and indeed the very island upon which Columbus first landed 
has always been and now is more than ever a question involved in doubt, and hence 
too in controversy. While Humboldt, Irving, Tarducci, and authors generally give the 
honor to San Salvador, or Cat Island, Navarrete espouses the cause of one of the Turk 
Islands, named Grande Salina ; Varnhagen, that of Marignano ; Fox, that of Samana, and 
Munoz, that of Watling Island. This last contention is supported by Beecher, of the 
London Hydrographic Office. 

t Barry's translation of De Lorgues' "Columbus," p. 159. 



1/8 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

cated and acknowledged, the carpenters cut down with their 
axes two large trees, which, having been joined in the form of 
the cross, they lifted and planted in the soil. The island thus 
first discovered was called by the natives Guanahani, and was in 
the centre of the first line of the Lucayas Islands, occupying the 
middle of the lengthened group forming the Bahaman archi- 
pelago. The officers and crews crowded around Columbus and 
went as far in their expressions and protestations of admiration, 
devotion, and loyalty, as they had so recently gone in their in- 
subordination, distrust, and mutiny. Their assurances of future 
and perpetual submission were unbounded. 

The most important feature in this great drama was the coming 
together of different races of men, heretofore strangers to each 
other. The immediate event affected the Europeans and aborig- 
inal Americans quite differently. The former had regarded 
themselves, up to the moment of the discovery, as victims of 
the chimerical aspirations of an adventurer and desperate man, 
who had staked all on a new theory, a dream of his own ; and 
they were hurrying on to a certain and inexorable fate. Now 
that the theory was established and the dream realized, their 
feelings and the open expression of them went to the other ex- 
treme of joy, gratitude, and exultation. The simple natives, on 
the other hand, when they beheld the great ships of the Span- 
iards, were struck with amazement and awe ; they flocked to the 
shore, and saw with astonishment the easy and graceful move- 
ments of the ships, which seemed to obey the commands of the 
captain. At first they thought them huge monsters that had 
come up from the deep during the night, but the opinion that 
the great ships had descended from the clouds, using their great 
wings for that purpose — for such they took the sails to be — or 
coming down upon the clouds themselves, was universally 
adopted by the natives until they became better acquainted with 
Europeans. Every minute detail of these huge canoes, of their 
movements, and of the celestial beings on board was watched 
with simple wonder and close attention. Their astonishment 
was increased when they saw the smaller boats let down into the 
water and manned by these extraordinary visitors, clad in metal 
and splendid trappings, and bearing in their hands brilliant ban- 
ners and powerful weapons of polished metal. As the boats- 
approached the shore the natives fled precipitately to the woods,. 



ON COLUMBUS. I79 

and from their concealment eagerly watched the astounding and 
to them, then, unintelligible ceremony of taking possession of 
their country. They trembled with fear, and yet were at- 
tracted, even riveted, to the scene by curiosity. They gazed 
with awe and admiration at these wonderful beings, at their fair 
complexions, their beards, and their gaudy dresses. While the 
royal notary was reducing the proceedings to writing, the simple 
natives began gradually to show themselves at the edge of the 
woods, and seeing no harm in the celestial strangers, but, on the 
contrary, as they smiled and received them with gentleness, they 
approached nearer and nearer, while Columbus and the others, 
following his example, permitted themselves to be touched by 
the curious and awe-stricken Indians, their beards to be felt by 
them, and their armor and clothes examined. They readily 
recognized Columbus as the chief by his tall and commanding 
appearance, and by the homage rendered to him by the others. 
He won their confidence by his benignity and kindness.* 

Columbus and his companions scanned the natives with intense 
and intelligent interest. He observed that they were all young, 
that they differed from the natives of Asia and Africa, and from 
all other races of men known to Europeans in color, stature, 
features, and shape of the head. He saw no human habitations, 
nor signs of wealth or civilization ; they were perfectly naked, 
and their bodies were painted in various colors, some being 
painted over their whole bodies, others on their faces or around 
the eyes alone. Their natural color was tawny or copper, some- 
what resembling the natives of the Canaries, and they wore no 
beards. They had large heads, straight and coarse hair, which 
they cut about the ears but preserved in long locks, hanging 
from their crowns down their backs. They had lofty foreheads, 
prominent cheek-bones, were of medium stature, and, so far as 
they could be seen from the grotesque and fantastic manner 
of painting them, their features were rather agreeable. Some 
painted only their noses. All were males, with the exception of 
a single female, young, perfectly naked, and handsomely shaped. 
Their arms consisted of clubs hardened by fire, and pointed with 
sharp flints or the teeth of sharks. Their appearance was wild, 



* Las Casas, " Hist. Ind.," lib. i., cap. 40 ; Oviedo, lib. i., cap, 6 ; Barry's De 
Lorgues' "Columbus," p. 161 ; Irving's "Columbus," vol. i., p. 158. 



l8o OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

but gentle. They were so unacquainted with metals that, when 
handed a sword, they handled it by the edge until they felt it 
cutting their flesh. 

Columbus made presents to the natives of colored caps, glass 
beads, hawks' bells, and other small articles, which they eagerly 
accepted, and regarded as of inestimable value. They proudly 
placed the caps on their heads and the beads around their necks, 
and the sound of the bells was wonderfully charming. They 
respectfull}^ and generously offered to the Spaniards everything 
they possessed. Columbus was delighted with the gentleness 
of the natives, which he regarded as a promising sign of their 
easy conversion to Christianity. His zealous mind rejoiced in 
the prospect of bringing countless souls to the joys of heaven. 
The Spaniards spent the remainder of the day in rest and recre- 
ation on the shore and in the woods, and in the evening all re- 
turned on board their ships. 

While the Spaniards were delighted with the grand and daz- 
zling result of their expedition, and spent a night of joyful rest, 
the natives were busily engaged in spreading the news of the 
arrival of the great ships and noble men from the clouds far and 
near. Early next morning the ships were surrounded by canoes 
made from a single log of wood, and crowded with natives. They 
brought their offerings to the mighty strangers, such as large 
balls of spun cotton, darts, domesticated parrots, and other native 
productions. They handled their canoes with perfect ease, some 
of which were large enough to hold fifty men. They also 
brought cakes of cassava bread, their principal article of food, 
and though at first it was insipid to the taste of the Spaniards, it 
afterward became one of their most important articles of food. 
The natives were called by Columbus Indians, because he still 
thought, and continued to his death to regard these people as 
natives of India ; and this singular name became the universal 
appellation of the American aborigines. The Indians sought 
with eagerness to exchange their parrots and large rolls of cotton, 
weighing twenty-five pounds, for the merest trifles received from 
the Spaniards, regarding such things as possessing a supernatural 
virtue, because they came, as they believed, from heaven. 
Columbus from the beginning treated them with the utmost jus- 
tice and generosity, and he would not permit the men to take 
the large rolls of spun cotton without giving an equivalent there- 



ON COLUMBUS. l8l 

for. Their cassava bread was made of the yuca root, but they 
had another kind of yuca, of which they ate the roots cooked in 
different ways. They esteemed their own goods of little value 
when compared to the wonderful trinkets of the marvellous 
strangers, which they eagerly sought, even the fragments and 
pieces of broken china and glass. 

But now a new element, developing, in fact, the sordid aspira- 
tions of civilized avarice, appeared in the dealings between the 
Europeans and the Indians, for the former had caught the sight 
of some small gold ornaments worn by the latter in their noses. 
Well have poets in all ages lamented in man the accursed thirst 
for gold ! These gold ornaments were gladly exchanged by the 
natives for glass beads or hawks* bells, and the Spaniards with 
even greater eagerness embarked in the traffic. The sight of 
gold roused the avarice of the Spaniards to a fearful extent. 
Columbus was compelled to forbid all traffic in gold, as this was 
an article reserved to the crown, and so with regard to cotton 
brought in in any large quantities. He felt anxious to meet the 
expectations of the Spanish sovereigns in pushing his search for 
the gold-bearing regions, and he inquired minutely of the natives 
concerning the location of the countries from which it was pro- 
cured. The answers he received of the existence of other islands 
and lands, some lying to the south, others to the southwest, and 
others to the northwest, deeply interested him, for the natives 
represented the lands to the south as so abounding in gold that 
the tribes from the northwest made predatory expeditions thither, 
remorselessly plundering those countries of their gold and carry- 
ing off the islanders as slaves. Columbus accepted these answers 
as confirming his belief that he had reached the famous countries 
described by Marco Polo as lying opposite Cathay, in the Chinese 
sea, and the marauding expeditions mentioned by the natives he 
took to be from the mainland of Asia, the Empire of the Grand 
Khan, whose inhabitants were warlike and dealers in slaves. 
He took the southern countries, from which the gold of the 
natives was procured, to be the famed island of Cipango, for 
Marco Polo had related that its king was served from vessels 
of gold, and his palace was roofed with the same precious 
metal. 

Some historians have regarded the triumphant entry of 
Columbus into Barcelona as the discoverer of America the 



1 82 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS. 

proudest moment of his life ; but what could exceed the glory 
and triumph of that supreme moment when he stood upon 
the virgin soil of the new world itself, its discoverer, plant- 
ing the standard of Christianity and unfurling the banners of 
Spain ! 



CHAPTER VIT. 

Attempt the end, and never stand to doubt ; 
Nothing's so hard but search will find it out." 



— Herrick. 



"But he who labors firm, and gains his point, 
Be what it will, which crowns him with success, 
He is the son of fortune and of fame ; 
By those admir'd, those specious villains most, 
That else had bellowed out reproach against him." 

— Thomson's "Agamemnon." 

" Columbia, Columbia, to glory arise. 

The queen of the world and the child of the skies." 

— Timothy Dwight. 

Columbus, having rested and refreshed his crews for two days, 
commenced now the work of exploring this unknown region of 
the world, which he had discovered after unprecedented opposi- 
tion, sufferings, hardships, and labors. He who was so lately 
the object of ridicule, of mutiny and threats, was r^ow regarded 
by his sailors and officers as the greatest of discoverers and navi- 
gators ; they who so recently plotted his death at sea, with the 
intention of returning to Spain and falsely accounting for his 
■death by accident, were now his enthusiastic and united sup- 
porters, ready at a word and a moment to obey his orders, and 
to follow him loyally wherever he should lead.* On the morn- 
ing of October 14th, with the Santa Maria and the boats of the 
caravels he set out to explore San Salvador and the neighboring 
islands, for the natives had told him of the existence of many 
adjacent islands. The islanders ever^'where had heard of the 
arrival of the visitors from the clouds, and they ran in great 
■crowds to welcome him, and to see the marvellous strangers and 
their great canoes. So eager were they to see their new ac- 
quaintances, that they called in loud voices to those remaining 
at home in the villages to " Come and see the men who came 
down from heaven, and bring them meat and drink." They 
ardently thanked the great deities for directing these wonderful 

* Irving's " Columbus," vol. i., p. 164; Tarducci's "Life of Columbus," Brown- 
son's translation, vol. i., p. 154. 



1 84 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

beinsfs to their shores. Columbus consoled himself with the 
prospect of making Christians of these benighted people, even 
at that early and critical moment noticing the presence of stone 
in the country suited for building churches. He also observed 
their homes, implements, kitchen gardens and their orchards, 
and saw as he advanced the rich forests and undulating hills of 
this and of a succession of other beautiful islands. The new 
world looked beautiful to his eyes. The coast of San Salvador 
was surrounded b}^ a reef of rocks within whose shelter were 
deep waters and secure harbors. He selected a place for a fort, 
a small peninsula, . which could be easily separated by water 
from the rest of the island. Six Indian cabins were standing on 
this point, and the admiral thought the gardens surrounding 
them equal to those of Castile ; but he was now in search of the 
opulent island of Cipango. He took on board seven natives, 
with the intention of carrying them to Spain, in order that, b}' 
learning the Spanish language, they might serve as interpreters 
for converting their countrymen to Christianity. He took also 
a supply of wood and water, and sailed the same evening in 
search of Cipango and its fabled riches. 

The 15th was spent in approaching the largest of the numerous 
and attractive islands, which he reached that evening, and named 
it St. Mary of the Conception. Here also he found the natives 
amiable, gentle, and generous with all their goods, naked, like 
those of San Salvador, cordial in their welcome and in their 
simple hospitality. The Indians on board the admiral's ship had 
represented to him the existence of numerous other islands of 
great wealth and abounding in gold, which he eagerly thought, 
he identified as the seven or eight thousand islands described by 
Marco Polo as located in the Chinese sea, and as abounding in 
gold and silver, spices, and precious goods. Every incident 
was now of deep interest to him. Just as the ships were about 
to sail, one of the seven Indian captives, already tired of his new 
and celestial companions, suddenly plunged into the sea, and, 
swimming swiftly to a large canoe near the shore, made his 
escape to the woods with the Indians who had been in the boat. 
A party of sailors from the Nina pursued, but only succeeded in 
capturing the Indian canoe after the fugitives had escaped. 
Soon afterward an Indian in a canoe approached and offered his 
ball of cotton from a distance, being afraid to come nearer,. 



ON COLUMBUS. 185 

whereupon he was captured by the sailors. Columbus had the 
captive brought to him, and having refused the proffered cotton 
and decked his prisoner with a colored cap on his head, beads 
around his neck, and hawks' bells in his ears, sent him ashore 
to his great delight, and at the same time restored the captured 
canoe. On the following day, while sailing for another island, 
he extended similar kindnesses to another native taken up by one 
of the ships with his canoe, and returned him to his friends with 
many presents. Such repeated acts of kindness completely won 
the hearts of the natives, who flocked in great crowds to the 
ships, and they also received presents and refreshments from the 
admiral. Nothing could have been more generous and humane 
than the treatment which he extended to the Indians, which was 
in marked contrast to the cruelty and rapacity which so many of 
his companions and succeeding discoverers practised toward 
them from the beginning. Had Columbus been invested with 
ample powers and supported with loyal Spanish soldiers, his 
whole administration would have been marked by the same just 
and kind treatment of the Indians. 

Columbus was so enraptured with the beauty of the lands and 
sea, forming such a succession of delightful surprises, that he 
was embarrassed to determine in which direction to turn his 
ships first. " I know not," he said, in one of his letters, " where 
to go first, nor are my eyes ever weary of gazing on the beauti- 
ful verdure. The singing of the birds is such that it seems one 
would never desire to depart hence. There are flocks of parrots 
that obscure the sun, and other birds of many kinds, large and 
small, entirely different from ours. Trees also of a thousand 
species, each having its particular fruit." 

Columbus found the inhabitants of Fernandina similar to those 
of the other islands, but they were more intelligent and ingenious 
in their domestic comforts, or, as he expressed it, " more socia- 
ble, more civilized, and even more cunning." Their cabins were 
neat and clean, constructed in the form of a pavilion, with branches 
of trees, reeds, and palm leaves, and located in the groves. The 
hammock was in general use for sleeping. The natives here as 
elsewhere regarded the Spaniards as celestial beings ; they gave 
plentifully of their fruits and foods, and filled the casks of the 
ships with the purest spring waters ; they made propitiatory 
offerings to these superhuman beings. In sailing around this 



1 86 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

island they found a fine harbor two leagues from the northwest 
cape. Columbus wrote that " the country was as fresh and 
green as in the month of May in Andalusia ; the trees, the fruits, 
the herbs, the flowers, the ver}'- stones, for the most part, as 
different from those of Spain as night from day."* On the 
island of Saometa, called by Columbus Isabella, he remarked the 
superiority of the natives, but he did not find the king of the 
island clothed in rich garments decked with gold, nor the abun- 
dance of gold, nor the mines of gold, which he was told by the 
other islanders he would encounter there. As he approached 
this island he thought, in his usually enthusiastic frame of mind, 
that he perceived the aromatic odors of Oriental spices and herbs ; 
but thousfh he found the island the most beautiful one he had 
visited, his hopes were never realized ; but he was always 
directed by the natives to other lands of promise. Having, after 
several days' hovering about the island, failed to discover the 
opulent king or the mines of gold, his hopes were next directed 
to another great island to the south, which the natives repre- 
sented as abounding in wealth, and rich in gold, pearls, spices, 
and fine merchandise. Still impressed with the writings of 
Marco Polo, and intent on verifying his statements, he sailed for 
this great island, which he persuaded himself was Cipango. 
The great vessels of trade described by the Indians must be the 
ships of the Grand Khan ; the great island of Bohio, the natives 
said, was not far distant, and opposite to these and about ten 
leagues distant he thought must lie the Empire of the Grand 
Khan himself, with its magnificent capital of Quinsai. Thus, 
taking leave of the Bahamas, he sailed for these fabled regions 
of the East, carrying with him the letter which Ferdinand and 
Isabella had entrusted to him to deliver to the Grand Khan with 
his own hands. Columbus, with his mind filled with the fairy 
legends and mythical geographical traditions of the Middle 
Ages, and at the same time vmfolding the true map of the world 
to mankind, with the aid of advanced science, stands forth in 
history as the connecting link between the ancient and the mod- 
ern world. It was with such splendid dreams that he gayly and 
joyously sailed from the Bahamas to the Antilles. 



* Irving's " Columbus," vol. i., p. i68 ; Navarrele, "Primer Viage," lib. i.; Mr. 
Brownson's translation of Tarducci's " Columbus," vol. i. 



I 



ON COLUMBUS. iS/ 

After several days' delay from adverse winds, the admiral was 
under sail October 14th, and after passing a small group of 
islands which he named Islas de Arena, now the Mucaras, and 
crossing the Bahama, on October 28th, he sighted the queen of 
the Antilles, and was astonished and delighted at its size, its 
magnificent scenery of mountains, vallej's, plains, noble rivers, 
majestic forests, promontories, and headlands. He approached 
the island on the coast west of Nuevitas del Principe ; he landed 
on the banks of a beautiful river, which he called San Salvador, 
and taking possession of the island, he called it Juana, as a compli- 
ment to Prince Juan. This majestic island broke upon the sight 
of Columbus like the realization of a golden dream. As he sailed 
up the beautiful river and observed with rapture its fruits and 
flowers, its ever-changing scenery, its noble trees, its green pas- 
tures and lawns, its grand mountains, the variety and luxury of 
its vegetation, its birds of many-colored plumage, its balmy air, 
its clear sk}- , the fragrance of the woods and plains, he felt con- 
vinced that he had found the long-sought island of Cipango.* 
Continuing his voyage, he occasionally landed, visited the vil- 
lages, gave names to them and to the rivers, and here, as else- 
where, he allowed none of his men to take the goods or proper- 
ties of the affrighted and flying inhabitants. He saw an improve- 
ment in the architecture of the houses, saw the cleanliness of the 
cabins, the rude statues of their idols, ingeniously carved wooden 
masks, and from the indications of a semi-civilization he con- 
cluded that he was in the approaches to a great, wealthy, and 
civilized empire. Seeing in every hut quantities of fishing tackle, 
he concluded that this was the fishing coast of the empire they 
M'-ere approaching. The Indians taken from the island of Guana- 
hani, or San Salvador, and on board the Pinta, told the captain, 
Martin Alonzo Pinzon, that beyond the cape and on a river lay, 
at four days' journey, the golden region of Cubanacan, abound- 
ing in precious metals. Pinzon communicated the information 
to Columbus ; the map of Dr. Toscanelli was consulted ; the 
belief that this island was Cipango was abandoned, and it was 
concluded that they had actually landed on the mainland of 
Asia ; that Cubanacan was no less than a part of Asia described 



* Charlevoix, "Hist. St. Domingo," lib. i., p. 20; Irving; Barry's De Lorgues' 
"Columbus;" Robertson's " Hist. America," etc. 



1 88 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

by Marco Polo ; that it had for its ruler the Tartar sovereign 
Kublai Khan, who was at war with the Grand Khan, and that the 
empire of the latter would soon be reached ; that they could not 
be far from Mangi and Catha}'. He accordingly doubled the 
cape, which he had named the Palms, with the intention of visit- 
ing Kublai Khan and delivering to him one of his letters of rec- 
ommendation from the Spanish sovereigns, and then proceeding 
to visit the Grand Khan himself at his capital at Cathay, the 
great object of his mission. 

So complete was the delusion under which Columbus and his 
companions labored, led thereto by the works of Marco Polo 
and other mediaeval authors and by the map of Toscanelli, that he 
actually sent a deputation, consisting of Rodrigo de Jeres and 
Luis de Torres, the Hebrew, Chaldaic, and Arabic linguist, and 
two Indian interpreters, with Indian guides to the court of 
Kublai Khan, with messages of friendship and peace, and to 
announce that the admiral would come in person with letters 
from his sovereigns and a present for the Asiatic king. It adds 
a pleasant tinge of romance to the momentous history of the dis- 
covery of America, that in the fifteenth century an embassy was 
sent in the name of the Spanish sovereigns, predecessors of the 
present enlightened ruler of Cuba, across the plains and moun- 
tains of that island to a fabulous prince of an Asiatic kingdom, 
who was then and there at war with the Grand Khan of Tartary. 

The ambassadors returned on November 6th to the ships, and 
no one in the eager crowd that gathered around to hear theii" 
report was as truly anxious to receive with credulity the ex- 
pected tidings of the Tartar king as the admiral. They had 
penetrated twelve leagues across the country ; the great Ori- 
ental ruler was a naked Indian chief ; his capital was a village 
of fifty cabins and one thousand inhabitants, equally naked as 
himself, with the exception of a covering of netted cotton around 
the middle of the body. They saw no gold or other valuable 
articles, no spices or precious stones. They were treated with 
the utmost deference by the chief and his people, and many of 
the latter desired to accompany them back in their journey to 
the skies. While this unexpected report shattered many of the 
admiral's cherished dreams, so firm was his belief in the theories 
he had formed, that one temporary delusion followed another. 

This expedition into the interior of Cuba, though it may seem 



ON COLUMBUS. 189 

almost grotesque to the people of the present day, formed one 
of the processes whereby, step by step, Columbus and the first 
discoverers felt their way in an unknown world. But there were 
two articles discovered by the Europeans in this strange em- 
bassy which give a practical importance of the highest order to 
it, one of which has done more to affect the question of human 
food throughout the world ever since than any other event that 
could have happened ; and the other has given to all the nations 
of the world a luxury of universal indulgence, so much prized 
that its abolition, if attempted, would revolutionize the govern- 
ments. These events were the first discovery of the potato and 
of tobacco by Europeans. While Mr. Irving refers the former 
to the more immediate researches of Columbus and his men 
during their exploration bf the resources and products of Cuba, 
other authors attribute the discovery to the embassy we are now 
describing. Thus while Columbus was in search of gold and 
spices, he discovered, without knowing its value, an article of 
human food more useful than the most precious metals, and 
more valuable to mankind than all the aromatic products of the 
East. But it was, without doubt, these ambassadors of the 
admiral who first discovered tobacco. Passing through the 
country they saw many of the natives, both men and women, 
carrying large rolls of a dried herb or plant, which were lighted 
at one end, while the other end was held in the mouth, and they 
sucked the smoke into their mouths and then expelled it with 
their lips. Astonished at so singular a custom, they inquired of 
the natives the meaning of such strange movements, and were 
told that the large roll, in shape like a flageolet, was called a 
tobago (tobacco), a name which has ever since been given to the 
plant itself.* 

While waiting for the return of the ambassadors, Columbus was 
busy in having his ships careened and repaired, and still more 
in seeking information from the natives. The latter, in their 
endeavors to enlighten him, frequently led him astray for want 
of a common language, or by the use of terms susceptible of 
different meanings. He had, however, gathered from the natives 
the impression that to the southeast lay a great island, but 



* Barry's De Lorgues' " Columbus," p. 171 ; Irving's " Columbus," vol. i., p. 182 ; 
Murray's " Lives of the Catholic Heroes and Heroines of America," p. 74. 



190 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

whether it was named Babeque or Bohio he could not tell ; but 
the great capital city they mentioned, Quisquay, he thought 
must be Quinsai (the celestial city), which Marco Polo had so 
frequently mentioned. He gave the name of Rio de Mares to 
the river he had discovered, and sailed on. He took on board 
several natives of both sexes, to be carried to Spain and to be 
instructed in the tenets of Christianity and in the Spanish lan- 
guage, in order to return them as interpreters, to aid in the con- 
version of their people, and on November 12th he turned his 
course to the southeast in quest of the populous and opulent 
island of Babeque.* 

In all his intercourse with the islanders, it is to be observed 
that the admiral made the most earnest inquiries for gold. This 
was prompted by no sordid motive of his own, but, as the Count 
de Lorgues justly observes, his motive and his necessity were 
to meet the expectations of his sovereigns, to interest them 
and all Spain in continuing his voyages by such evidences of 
promised recompense, and he was also anxious to collect gold in 
great quantities, in order to build up that princely fund with 
which he intended to equip and sustain the new crusade, that 
was destined to redeem the Holy Land from the hands of the 
infidels. He stated that Cuba must contain the land of un- 
bounded gold and wealth, Cipango. " According to the globes 
I have seen and the delineations in atlases, it must be situated 
in this region." Again he writes : " I wish to discover and see 
as many countries as I can." f He wrote the most urgent ap- 
peals to Ferdinand and Isabella to excite their zeal and efforts 
for the conversion of the Indians to Christianity. This aspira- 
tion was uppermost in his thoughts ; his journal and letters 
exhibit his character in this respect in the most striking light. 
On November 6th he entered in his journal also, " I go this 
day to the southeast to search for gold, spices, and unknown 
lands. 

Columbus directed his course away from Babeque for fear the 
Indians from that island whom he had on board might desert. 
But he found them quite contented with their new mode of life. 



* Browiison's Tarducci, vol. i., p. 173. 

t "Journal of Columbus;" Irving's " Life of Columbus;" Barry's De Lorgues' 
' Life of Columbus," p. 166. 



ON COLUMBUS. 19! 

They had learned a number of Spanish words, made the sign of 
the cross, knelt before the crucifix, showed great devotion at 
their prayers, which they recited with hands lifted up to heaven, 
and chanted the "Salve Regina" and the "Ave Maria." A 
circumstance occurred, while sailing for Babeque, which deeply 
impressed the religious feelings of Columbus. He observed a 
large cluster of islands, countless in number and forming quite 
an archipelago, and as he was proceeding to take possession of 
the first in the name of all, he saw a huge cross on an eminence 
formed by two falling trunks of trees, the arm of the cross having 
fallen across the larger trunk. He fell upon his knees ; he thanked 
God for this sign of His mercy, and having had the cross fitted 
together by his carpenters, on the following Sunday he and his 
staff officers and others made a solemn procession, and erected 
the cross firmly in the soil. 

But Columbus found some of his own followers less manage- 
able than the barbarians on board the ships, for he already 
noticed that the Pinzons did not punctually obey his orders, and 
occasionally let expressions drop which were inconsiderate or 
insubordinate. On November 20th the Pinta paid no attention 
to his signals ; at night he shortened sail and signalled to the 
Pinta to join him, but at dawn, to his great disappointment, the 
Pinta was not to be seen. Martin Alonzo Pinzon, with his ship, 
had deserted the admiral ! The latter was deeply affected by 
this ignoble act ; he was in doubt as to the designs of Pinzon ; 
"he could not overtake the Pinta, with her superior speed ; he 
therefore returned to continue the exploration of the coast of 
Cuba. He reached the point of Cuba on November 24th, an- 
chored in a magnificent harbor formed by the mouth of a river, 
which he named St. Catherine. In the bed of the river he dis- 
covered stones veined with gold. He made note of the various 
vegetable products of the country, especially of its gigantic trees, 
and while thus coasting and landing from time to time, he dis- 
covered a cake of wax in one of the Indian cabins, though this 
was subsequently believed to have been brought from Yucatan. 
From one of the great fir-trees he caused a mast to be made for 
the Nina. In the midst of his sorrow at the desertion of the 
Pinta, his journal is full of expressions of gratitude to God, such 
as the following : " It pleased our Lord to show him every day 
something better than that of the preceding day ; and that he 



192 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

went from good to better in all his discoveries."* Having 
reached the eastern extremity of the island of Cuba on December 
5th, the admiral concluded this must be the eastern limit of Asia, 
and he called it the Alpha and Omega. 

Labormg under this impression, still embarrassed by the deser- 
tion of the Pinta, and undecided whether to continue the naviga- 
tion of the Cuban coast until he should reach the rich regions of 
farther India or pursue the search for the golden island of 
Babeque, he was sailing almost without an immediate aim, when 
he discovered an island which he took at first for a gold-bearing 
island mentioned by the Indians under the name of Bohio, but 
which turned out to be Hayti, to which he gave the name of 
Hispaniola. This majestic island, with its grand scenery, its 
lofty and rocky mountains, its expanding verdure, all seen 
through a clear atmosphere, reanimated the spirits of the ad- 
miral. He entered a fine harbor at the western end, and called 
it St. Nicholas. There were many signs of the island being 
quite populous. It abounded in fish, and possessed beautiful 
rivers and harbors. While detained in his exploration of the 
coast, he named another harbor Conception, and entering it, they 
took solemn possession of the island on December 12th, erecting 
a cross in token of that event. The natives at first fled from 
beings whom they took for messengers from heaven, but the 
kindness and generosity of Columbus soon won their confidence. 
His descriptions of this beautiful island, written at the time, rep- 
resented it as closely resembling the most favored parts of Spain. 
The first of the natives with whom the Spaniards came in con- 
tact was a young female, captured after the ceremony of taking 
possession of the country. She was brought, trembling with fear, 
before the admiral, who treated her with even more than his 
usual kindness. He caused her to be clad in European garments, 
and bestowed upon her the usual presents of beads, brass rings, 
hawks' bells, and other trifles. He then returned her to her 
people, even against her will, as she was well pleased with the 
finery and kindness she received. On the following day nine 
robust Spanish soldiers were sent to find the Indian village, and 
soon the best relations were established between the Haytians 



* Barry's De Lorgues' " Columbus," p. 175 ; " Hist, del Almirante," cap. 29 ; Las 
Casas," Journal of Columbus, 25 de Noviembre ;" Irving's " Columbus," vol. i., p. 191. 



ON COLUMBUS. I93 

and their celestial visitors. While at the village the Spaniards 
saw the good effect the kindness shown to the Indian woman on 
the previous day had produced, for she was brought in triumph 
on the shoulders of the men into the village, and her husband 
expressed unbounded happiness at the honors and favors shown 
to her. 

The natives ot Ha3^ti were in a state ot primitive simplicity ; 
the spontaneous soil and serene climate yielded them abundant 
food without labor ; clothing was unknown ; and they had no 
wants beyond those simple needs which nature supplied. The 
accounts written by Columbus and by contemporary authors rep- 
resent Hispaniola, which was the name he bestowed upon the 
island of Hayti, as an earthly paradise. While enjoying a super- 
fluity of good things, they gave lavishly of all they had ; there 
was no distinction of mine and thine ; no code of laws or officers 
of the law were necessary, but, as Peter Martyr wrote, " They 
deal truly with one another, without laws, without books, and 
without judges." Columbus wrote of the inhabitants, " Men 
and women were as naked as when they came from the bosoms 
of their mothers," and, as De Lorgues writes, Columbus " or- 
dered the greatest decency to be observed toward these simple 
children of nature." It was related that while the ordinary 
members of the tribe were contented with one wife, the chief 
was allowed twenty. When once acquainted with the Spaniards, 
they immediately placed unbounded faith in them. Columbus 
rejoiced at the prospect of making these innocent people Chris- 
tians. 

The admiral made another effort between December 14th and 
i6th to discover the fabled island of Babeque, but, like other 
visions created by the mistaken information of the natives, it 
eluded his search. He resumed the exploration of the coast of 
Hispaniola. At a beautiful harbor, which he named the Port of 
Peace, he liberated another Indian whom he had taken up with 
his canoe from the waters during his cruise, and sent him with 
presents to his people. Here he received a visit from a young 
cacique, carried in a litter b}' four of his subjects, and attended 
by two hundred others. Presents were exchanged. Columbus 
entertained the chief at dinner, and in the evening sent him 
ashore with great ceremony and a salute from the cannons of the 
ships. Gre^t ceremony was observed in the chief's return to his 



194 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

village, and the presents he had received were carried at the 
head of the long royal procession. While on board the admiral 
showed him all the parts of the ship, Spanish coins, and a cruci- 
fix, and was lavish in his presents, avowing to his officers his- 
hopes thus, and by setting them an example of Christian virtues, 
to predispose the chief favorably for the Christian faith. He 
wrote to the sovereigns, " They are the best people in the world, 
and I have great hope in our Lord that your Highnesses will make 
them all Christians." * He caused a large cross to be erected 
in the village of his visitor, the cacique, around which the Indians 
assembled and prayed after the manner of the Spaniards, and 
Columbus " hoped in our Lord that all these islands would 
become Christian." Continuing his examination of the coast of 
Hispaniola on December 19th and 20th, he anchored in a fine 
harbor, which he called St. Thomas, supposed to be now the 
Bay of Acul, and here the natives flocked to the anchorage in 
great numbers and offered as presents to the celestials small 
pieces of gold, calabashes of fresh water, yam bread, and what- 
ever they possessed, with unbounded generosity. The admiral 
ordered that in every case presents should be given in return. 
Several neighboring caciques visited the ships, invited the Span- 
iards to their villages, and entertained them. with unbounded 
hospitality. On December 22d Columbus received an embassy 
from the great cacique of the country, Guacanagari, who sent 
presents of gold, beads, and other Indian articles, and requested 
a visit from the august strangers from the clouds. The fleet was 
immediately sailed to the eastward, and at the town built on the 
river called by the Spaniards Punta Santa was the capital of 
this great cacique, the largest and finest village they had seen. 
A deputation, consisting of the notary and several mariners, was 
sent to the chief, who received them with every honor, and 
he and his people loaded them with presents. Though ask- 
ing nothing in return, they received the presents of the Spaniards 
with great joy and superstitious veneration. The cacique sent 
presents of parrots and gold to the admiral, and the delegates 
were escorted to their boats by a large crowd of Indians eager 
to do them every service. In the mean time, lesser caciques 
and great numbers of their subjects visited the ships, and 



"Journal of Columbus," Sunday, December i6th. 



ON COLUMBUS. I95 

these, as usual, assured the admiral of the existence of rich re- 
gions in the interior, and especially of one named Cibao, which 
he persuaded himself could be no other than Marco Polo's 
opulent island of Cipango. And yet, with his accustomed sub- 
mission of all things to the heavenly guidance, he wrote in his 
journal the inmost sentiments of his soul : " May our Lord, who 
holds all things in His hands, be pleased to vouchsafe to me what 
is most for His service." While at this anchorage five caciques 
and several thousand people visited the admiral, mostly in canoes, 
yet five hundred swam to the ships for want of canoes, all 
bringing presents and receiving them in return. The scene was 
one of unequalled novelty and interest. Caciques and subjects 
all assured him of the gold-bearing region in the interior and of 
other districts rich in gold, so that he felt assured of meeting the 
views of the sovereigns and of redeeming the Holy Land ; and 
he audibly exclaimed in his ardor, " May our Lord in His great 
mercy aid me in finding that gold." * 

The fleet set sail on the morning of December 24th from Port 
St. Thomas for the harbor of the great cacique, Guacanagari, 
and had reached within a league and a half of the place when 
Columbus, who had seldom slept and had kept incessant watch 
almost all the day and night, was forced by exhaustion to retire 
to his cabin and throw himself with his clothes on upon his bed 
for a short sleep. A steersman was left in charge of the helm, 
and the admiral felt perfectly secure, as the weather and sea 
were calm. The visitors to Guacanagari had reported to him 
there were no rocks nor shoals in or near the harbor. " For two 
consecutive days and the preceding night," says De Lorgues, 
" the concourse of the natives, the presents to be given and re- 
ceived, the exchanges to be watched over, the questions to be 
put to interpreters, and their answers, the classifying and preser- 
vation of the different productions of these countries, which he 
wished to take to Castile, his religious exercises, and the multi- 
plied cares of the command, did not yield him a single minute 
for rest." Throughout the voyage he had ordered that the 
helm should never be entrusted to boys or novices, and on this 
occasion he left a steersman at the helm. Scarcely had the 
admiral retired to his room when the steersman abandoned his 



Barry's De Lorgues' " Columbus," p. 192, 



196 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

post to a boy, and he and the other mariners who had the watch 
all retired to sleep. The boy left at the helm also fell asleep. 
The Santa Maria, the admiral's own ship, thus left to herself, 
was drifted by the currents against a sand -bank. Though the 
roaring of the breakers was heard a league off, it failed to awake 
the sleeping crew. The cabin boy gave the alarm. The admiral 
was the first to reach deck. A boat was let down by his orders 
to carry out an anchor astern and warp the ship, but instead of 
executing his order, the master and men of the boat deserted, and 
went to the Nina for shelter. Refused admission on the Nina, 
these deserters had to return to the caravel ; but the boat of the 
Nina reached her first. The "admiral, seeing himself deserted, 
ordered his mast cut down in order to lighten his ship, but he 
had not men enough to execute the order. The ship had swung 
across the stream, was leaning on one side, and the water gain- 
ing upon her. He and his remaining crew had to abandon the 
Santa Maria and take shelter on the Nina. The sea broke over 
the former, her seams opened, and though she did not sink, she 
was a wreck. At daybreak the admiral sent word of his dis- 
aster to the chief, Guacanagari, who was moved to tears by the 
disaster to his new friends, and immediately sent all his people 
with their canoes to aid in saving the provisions and propert}' 
on board the stranded ship. In a few hours she was unloaded, 
and the chief gave the admiral three large buildings for the 
storage of his effects. During the progress of the work he sent 
repeated messages of sympathy to the admiral. Indian guards 
were placed about the buildings, and, to the credit of these 
untaught children of nature, not a thing was lost or stolen. 
Columbus consoled himself with the thought that it was the will 
of God he should remain here. The sympathy and hospitalit}- 
he and his men received from the cacique and his tribe were 
most generous, and they were delicately bestowed. Columbus 
was moved to admiration for their goodness, for the cacique had 
placed all he possessed at his disposal. Well has Mr. Irving said : 
" Never, in a civilized country, were the vaunted rites of hos- 
pitality more scrupulously observed than by this uncultivated 
savage." Guacanagari and his people were delighted to have 
the Spaniards settle in their dominions. Columbus wrote in his 
journal, " There is not in the world a better nation nor a better 
land." 



ON COLUMBUS. I97 

The good and amiable cacique visited Columbus on the Nina 
on December 26th, and was moved to tears when he saw the 
great admiral looking dejected. He offered more houses for the 
accommodation of his goods and his men, and indeed offered 
everything he possessed. The stream of visitors still poured in 
from all the country, and considerable quantities of gold were 
acquired by barter and presents. When the cacique saw the 
pleasure the gold gave the admiral, he renewed the assurances 
that great quantities of gold could be procured at Cibao, in the 
interior, and the admiral, delighted at the quantities of gold re- 
ported by his men as constantly coming in from the natives, and 
at the assurances of the cacique, felt confident that he should soon 
find the much-sought Cipango. The natives freely exchanged 
their trinkets of gold for trifles, and nothing could exceed their 
delight when they found the hawks' bells resounding to the 
measure of their dances. The Indian king and the admiral enter- 
tained each other with generous hospitality, and their friendship 
strengthened every day. The feast given by the cacique was 
worthy of a prince in its abundance and the choiceness of the 
varied foods, for it consisted of utias or coneys, fish, roots, and 
a variety of fruits. The prince delighted the admiral also by his 
courtly and royal manners. The entertainment was followed by 
the national games and dances, performed by a thousand naked 
Indians in the beautiful groves surrounding the cacique's resi- 
dence. These were succeeded in turn, by the orders of the ad- 
miral, with the exercises of the Moorish bow and arrow, per- 
formed by the Spaniards, which greatly delighted the chief and 
his people ; but when Columbus had the Lombard cannon and 
arquebus discharged, the Indians fell upon their faces with fear, 
and were dismayed at the havoc the balls made with the trees 
they struck and shivered. Columbus assured the Indians and 
their chief that he would use these weapons for defending them 
against the attacks of their dreaded enemies, the Caribs, and 
they were transported with delight at being thus taken under 
the protection of these children of heaven. The chief distributed 
presents among the Spaniards with princely grace and gener- 
osity, and the Indians received the trifles the admiral gave them 
in return with a delight which showed that they regarded them 
as gifts from heaven. The life of these Indians was simple and 
happy beyond description. In that mild climate clothing was 



198 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

unnecessary, and Las Casas describes them as living in a state 
of primitive innocence. Labor was unnecessary, as the bountiful 
earth yielded them spontaneously the most unstinted abundance 
of all the)^ needed. Above all, they were contented and happy. 
Even the great admiral of the seas drew consolation in his dis- 
aster from the sympathy of the barbarian chief. The Spaniards 
mingled freely with the natives, were charmed with the relaxations 
and indulgences now enjoyed by them, and many petitioned the 
admiral to allow them to remain behind when he should re- 
turn to Spain, In his own personal intercourse with the ca- 
cique and his subjects, Columbus was a model of propriety and 
honor. 

The scientific attainments of the admiral were now successfully 
called into requisition in the planning and erection of a fort or 
fortlet with the wreck of the Santa Maria. It was a small, 
square castle, with bastions at the angles, and its erection was 
the joint work of the Spanish mariners and of the Indians under 
the personal direction of Columbus. Guacanagari and his sub- 
jects were delighted at the prospect of having this work of de- 
fence against the Caribs, of having it manned with the ironclad 
soldiers from heaven, and at looking forward to future visits of 
the admiral with new ships and fresh supplies of beads and 
hawks' bells. They worked on the fortress with a hearty good- 
will, "little dreaming," says Irving, " that they were assisting 
to place on their necks the galling yoke of perpetual and toilsome 
slavery." 

Columbus was now forced to decide upon his immediate future 
course. A vessel like the Nina was reported to have been seen 
off the eastern end of the island by the Indians. The ever-san- 
guine admiral was sure this was the Pinta, and he sent a large 
canoe manned by Indian oarsmen and commanded by a Spanish 
seaman to find the erring Pinzon and deliver to him a letter, 
which was couched in terms of mildness and conciliation, and 
urging him to join his command immediately. A three-days' 
search resulted in finding no such ship, and the admiral saw him- 
self and all his men, his specimens from the new world, the 
Indians on board, destined to be carried to Spain, his gold and 
other treasures, and the very record of his great discover}-, all 
subjected to the risk of utter loss on a return trip to Spain with 



ON COLUMBUS. I99 

a single ship. The desertion of Pinzon and the wrecking of 
the Santa Maria compelled him to abandon his plans for prose- 
cuting his explorations and discoveries of the new countries lying 
within his very grasp. He resolved to return to Spain. While 
building the fort, streams of visitors came to the site, including 
Guacanagari, the chief cacique, several of his tributary caciques 
and their tribes in great numbers. The great cacique never 
wearied of entertaining and honoring the admiral, treating him 
and his companions with unbounded hospitality and honor, and 
among the many delicate attentions which he paid the celestial 
chief, one was on the occasion when Guacanagari, attended by 
five inferior caciques, all wearing coronets of gold, received the 
admiral with distinguished honor, and, seating him in a chair of 
state, took the coronet of gold from his own head and placed it 
on that of Columbus. Little did he suspect that this courteous 
act was emblematic of the transfer of dominion over the new 
world from its aboriginal rulers and owners to the European 
race. Streams of gold poured in, and Columbus felt consoled at 
the prospect of meeting the expectations of his royal patrons at 
home. Indeed, it was with the hope of establishing a trade in 
gold that he determined to leave a Spanish colony behind him. 
Already he had, by traffic with the natives, amassed a good 
quantity of the precious metal for the home government and for 
his own share, the latter of which was to be appropriated to the 
recovery of the holy sepulchre. 

To the fortress, which was now finished, he gave the name of 
La Navidad, in honor of the Saviour's birth, and from the many 
volunteers who offered themselves, he selected nine of the stout- 
est and best men in his service, including a physician, ship-car- 
penter, calker, cooper, tailor, and gunner, and placed the garri- 
son under the command of Diego de Arana, of Cordova, a near 
relative of his wife, who was also the notary and alguacil of the 
expedition. He gave the colony, or rather the garrison, the 
long boat of the Santa Maria, to be used for fishing ; also medi- 
cines, seeds for planting, and a large quantit)'^ of merchandise for 
traffic with the natives in exchange for gold. He also left with 
them utensils of every kind, a year's supply of biscuits, some 
wine, and a supply of arms and artillery. He established thor- 
•ough discipline in the garrison, and he endeavored to inspire 



200 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

them with his own noble and lofty sentiments. Truly was this 
the advance-guard of European civilization in the new world ! 
Would that they had proved worthy of such a rank ! 

In the mean time, all things were set in order on board the Nina 
for the return voyage — a voyage scarcely less momentous, con- 
sidering that the outfit had now been reduced from three ships 
to a single caravel, than the first outward voyage of discovery. 
Might not the garrison perish on land, and the admiral and all 
his men and his only ship perish at sea, and the world become 
convinced that the Western Hemisphere was an empty vision 
and a delusive dream ! 

Before taking leave of his colony, this first hope of their 
country and race, he provided most amply and even tenderly 
for them and for their every want. They had a fort capable of 
resisting any attack of the Caribs, however numerous, ample pro- 
visions, were surrounded by a friendly and admiring people, and 
inider the protection of a noble and generous cacique. They 
could not have been in better condition for continuing the great 
and exalted work of Columbus, until his return with reinforce- 
ments of men, ships, colonists, and all the appliances of European 
colonization. The fortress of La Navidad is supposed to have 
been located near Haut de Cap ; the capital of Guacanagari, 
called Guarico, was w^here the village of Petite Anse now stands. 
Columbus assembled his garrison and made them an address, 
which was a model of great thoughts eloquently expressed, of 
high aims, of noble purposes, of wise forethought, profound 
sagacity, and of honorable and conscientious principles and con- 
duct. He impressed upon them the glorious object of the dis- 
covery, the propagation of the Christian faith, and he besought 
them, by studying the Indian language, to qualify themselves to 
instruct the natives in Christian doctrine. In the name and by 
the authority of the sovereigns he commanded the men to obey 
their officers, to maintain the utmost respect for Guacanagari, 
their best friend, and maintain good and honorable relations with 
him, his tributary chiefs, and all his subjects, and, above all, to 
observe the most rigorous continence in regard to the Indian 
women ; to maintain friendly relations with all the Indians, to- 
remain within Guacanagari's domains, not to scatter, but tO' 
sleep always at night in the castle ; to explore the mineral and 
other resources of the country, to look out for another and better 



ON COLUMBUS. 20I 

place of settlement by the time of his return, and in general to 
maintain the honor of their nation and their faith.* 

Columbus went on shore from his ship on January 2d, 1493, 
and took a deeply felt and impressive farewell of his generous 
friend, Guacanagari, his chieftains, and his people. He invited 
them to a parting feast, which was served at one of the houses 
occupied by the Spaniards ; he gave the great chief presents, 
which he prized above all others, a new shirt, put a collar of 
gems on his neck, a scarlet mantle on his shoulders, red bus- 
kins on his feet, a ring of silver on his finger, and embraced 
him with such deep and generous good-will that the noble 
cacique was bathed in his own tears. He commended to the 
cacique's generous friendship the Spaniards he was about to 
leave behind, particularly Diego de Arana, Pedro Gutierrez, and 
Rodrigo de Escobedo, his lieutenants. The admiral assured the 
cacique that he would, on his return to Hispaniola, bring him 
presents worthy of his rank and virtues. The cacique exceeded 
all the admiral's wishes in the extent of his generous promises 
of provisions and services to the garrison, and expressed the 
utmost sorrow at his departure. Columbus then caused his men 
to give a fine displa)^ of skirmishes and mock fights in order to 
impress the minds of the Indians with the military skill and 
power of the Spaniards. The Indians were overwhelmed with 
terror mingled with admiration, and would have shrunk from 
such destructive engines but for the thought that they were to 
be used for their protection. After the parting between Colum. 
bus and the cacique, the separation between the departing Span- 
iards and those who were to remain behind followed, and was 
truly affecting ; but the hope of soon meeting again inspired the 
hearts of all. Columbus sailed from La Navidad on his first re- 
turn voyage from the new world to Spain, on January 4th, 1493. 
He had most assiduously secured and stored away on the Nina 
specimens of all the productions of the countries he had discov- 
ered, including a considerable quantity of gold and a number of 
the natives, the latter being destined to return to their people as 
Christian interpreters and instructors. 

After two days* sailing in an easterly direction toward a lofty 



* Herrera ; Munos ; Navarrete ; " Hist, del Almirante ;" Irving's " Life of Colum- 
bus ;" Barry's De Lorgues, " Columbus." 



202 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

promontory, which Cokimbus named Monte Christi, the Pinta 
was discerned in the distance, and soon the deserter came bear- 
ing down toward the Nina, and on joining company Martin 
Alonzo Pinzon came on board the Nina and made many excuses 
to the admiral for his conduct, which, however, were either con- 
tradictory or purely false. Columbus prudently refrained from 
reproaches, as the two remaining vessels were still commanded 
by the Pinzon brothers, and many of their relatives and friends 
were in the crews ; he was, in fact, somewhat in their power 
still. Pinzon had availed himself of the superior speed of his 
ship, though delayed some time among the entanglements of the 
Caicos Islands, and had reached the gold-bearing regions of 
Hispaniola, where he had collected much gold, retaining half for 
himself as captain and dividing the other half among his men to 
secure their support and secrecy. But Columbus succeeded, 
notwithstanding, in getting these particulars, and, as he dis- 
trusted the Pinzons on account of their unworthy conduct, he 
abandoned his wish to continue a while longer with the two ships 
to explore the islands and countries of the new world, and re- 
solved to return to Spain immediately. 

Though Pinzon had concealed the details of his conduct, 
Columbus learned of them. His misconduct in appropriating 
the gold to his own and the use of his crew was a flagrant viola- 
tion of the orders of the sovereigns and of the fundamental law 
of the expedition. De Lorgues, in speaking of his wise suppres- 
sion of his indignation at the conduct of Pinzon, says : ' ' He be- 
came resigned, and sacrificed his self-love, his sense of justice, 
his personal dignity to a dut}^ which was of still greater impor- 
tance than his rights." 

The admiral sent to a large and neighboring river for wood 
and water, and the stream, from the particles of gold seen in its 
sands, he called Rio del Oro, or River of Gold. He also men- 
tions having seen in this vicinity large turtles, and goes on in his 
journal to state that here also he saw three mermaids, which 
elevated themselves above the water, and resembled those he 
had seen on the coast of Africa ; but though retaining traces of 
the human features, they were by no means " the beautiful 
beings they had been represented to be."* Continuing his 

* Barry's De Lorgues' " Columbus," p. 199 ; Irving's " Columbus, "p. 231; "Journal 
of Columbus." 



ON COLUMBUS. 203 

course, he reached, on the evening of January 9th, " the river 
where Pinzon had been trading, and here, on the complaint of 
the natives, he released with presents four Indian men and two 
girls, whom Pinzon had seized and had concealed in his ship with 
the intention of carrying them to Spain and selling them as 
slaves. Pinzon submitted unwillingly to this act of justice, but 
was outspoken in his language to the admiral. The river he 
called Rio de Gracia, but it retained its name of Martin Alonzo, 
after its discoverer. With a favorable wind Columbus reached 
a beautiful and elevated headland, which he called Capo del 
Enamorado, or Lover's Cape, now Cape Cabron, and still further 
on he found the natives warlike and hostile, well armed with a 
powerful and hard wooden sword and other formidable weapons, 
and treacherous. Columbus sent a party of armed Spaniards on 
shore, after he had feasted one of these warriors and sent him 
t>ack delighted to his people, but this warlike people treacher- 
ously attacked the Spaniards, who immediately formed and 
advanced upon their assailants, killing two and putting the re- 
mainder to flight. Columbus deeply lamented this first contest 
with the natives and first shedding of native blood by Europeans 
in the new world ; but on the following day these warlike natives 
and their chief made amicable approaches, which the admiral 
encouraged, and which resulted in a friendly visit to the caravel, 
an entertainment, the bestowal of presents, and the establishment 
of friendly relations between the new world and the old once 
more. The native warriors seemed to have admired the superior 
prowess of their antagonists, and treasured no resentment for 
the defeat of the day before. 

Having resolved to return immediately to Spain and forego 
his desire for further explorations and discoveries, the remainder 
of January was lost in waiting daily for a favorable wind. It 
was not until the early part of February that he could avail him- 
self of a breeze on which to sail directly for Spain. In the mean 
time, he had endeavored to find and visit the Caribs and carry 
one or two of them to Spain, and to remove his doubts as to the 
existence of such beings as cannibals ; but he did not succeed in 
finding them. He had no better success in finding another 
island mentioned to him by the natives and called " Matinino," 
and which was represented to be inhabited by armed women 



204 ()I.D AND NEW LICHTS 

alone, without any men, and which reminded him of the fabulous 
Amazons of old. Now finally the prows were turned to the east 
and to home. The homeward voj^age was overtaken by the 
most violent storms, which tested the utmost skill of the admiral 
and his mariners to keep the ships from sinking. At his sugges- 
tion all on board the ships promised that three pilgrimages should 
be vowed to heaven for their safe deliverance : one, to be per- 
formed by the person drawing the lot, to be made to the shrine 
of Our Lady of Guadalupe, bearing a wax taper weighing five 
pounds. This was drawn by the admiral. As the storm con- 
tinued, another lot was drawn to determine who should make a 
pilgrimage to the chapel of Our Lady of Loretto, in the Pontifical 
States, and this fell to a sailor named Pedro Villa ; but as he was 
too poor to bear the expense of the journey, the admiral agreed 
to bear his expenses. Now again, as the storm grew still fiercer, 
a third lot was drawn to determine who should make a pilgrim- 
age to the church of Santa Clara, at Moguer, and again the lot 
fell to Columbus. He religiously and devoutly performed his 
vows on reaching Spain. But, notwithstanding their prayers 
and vows, the storm grew so violent as to cause all to despair ; 
not only the sailors, but even the admiral, that man of faith, 
gave up all for lost, though he accepted all things as the will of 
God. The Pinta had disappeared, and was believed to have 
foundered in the storm. His hopes gave way. A prey to the 
most tumultuous thoughts, he felt that all was gone ; that he 
would never reach Spain to report his discovery, the knowledge 
of which would be buried with himself and his men in the ocean ; 
that he would never see his two sons again ; that they would be 
taunted with the wild adventure and failure of their father, and 
that sacrifices and sufferings such as no man had suffered would 
all go for. naught. With faltering step he reached his cabin, and 
with a hand 3^et firm he wrote a brief account of his discoveries 
on parchment ; this he sealed and directed to Ferdinand and 
Isabella, and promised a thousand ducats to the person who 
should deliver it to the sovereigns unopened ; he then wrapped it 
in a waxed cloth, placed it in the centre of a cake of wax, and 
enclosing the whole in a barrel, threw it into the sea, leaving the 
crews to suppose he was making another vow for the safety of 
the return voyage. A duplicate was made and placed upon the 



1 



ON COLUMBUS. 205 

poop, SO that, in case the vessel sunk, the barrel would float on 
the sea and reach the shores of Europe.* 

His mind was now more at rest. If he perished, his discovery 
and his fame might survive ; but on February 14th the skies 
brightened ; on the 15th, though the sea was rough, the skies were 
brighter, and, to the joy of all, land was descried. " The trans- 
ports of the crew," says Mr. Irving, " at once more gaining sight 
of the old world, were almost equal to those experienced at first 
beholding the new." The pilots thought they were off the coast 
of Castile, but the superior skill of Columbus enabled him more 
correctly to sa}' they were approaching the Azores. The ad- 
miral was almost wrecked in health. Though nearly paralyzed 
with gout, he had remained four days and nights on deck amid 
the storm, drenched with rains and tossed by the waves ; now, 
almost disabled and inactive, he was compelled to retire to his 
bed for rest. It was not until February 17th that he reached the 
land at Santa Maria, the most southern of the Azores, one of the 
possessions of Portugal. The astonishment of the inhabitants 
was great, but it was bej'ond bounds when they were told whence 
the strangers had come — that they had reached Asia across the 
Atlantic, and had discovered the Indies. Remembering the vow 
to be performed at the first landing-place they should reach, the 
admiral sent one half the men on shore, who procured a priest 
to say mass for them at the chapel of the Blessed Virgin near by, 
while the pilgrims walked from the shore to the shrine in pro- 
cession, barefooted and in their shirts ; the admiral and the re- 
mainder of the men stayed in the ships, intending to make their 
pilgrimage in like manner next da}-. Castaiieda, the Portuguese 
governor, treacherously surrounded the chapel and made all the 
pilgrims prisoners. His object was to seize the admiral, acting 
under the orders of the Portuguese Government, and it was 
fortunate that his pilgrimage was set for the following da}'. 
Finding himself foiled in the attempt to get possession of Colum- 
bus, he returned the prisoners to their ships, Avhile the admiral 
from his deck reproached the treacherous official for his base 
conduct. It was thus, as we have seen in these pages, that the 
first of Europeans were received with joy and hospitality by the 



* Barry's De Lorgues' "Columbus," p. 206; "Hist, del Almirante," cap. 36 J 
Irving's " Life of Columbus," vol. i., p. 243. 



2o6 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

far-off and heathen natives of an unknown world on reaching the 
Western Hemisphere, while on returning to their own, the East- 
ern Hemisphere, from which they had sailed, conquerors, dis- 
coverers, and missionaries of Christianity, and while lifting up 
their voices in praise and thanks to God for their safety, they 
were treacherously betrayed by a kindred race, their fellow- Chris- 
tians. While few men ever reaped such glory as did Columbus, 
history discloses no one who ever experienced more of the base- 
ness of his fellow-men than he. Thus does the history of the 
world seem to vibrate between glory and shame ! 

Columbus rejoiced on February 24th at being once more at 
sea, and with thanksgiving he turned his ship toward the 
coveted shores of Spain ; but the little fleet was again overtaken 
with a violent siorm, and on the 27th they seemed at the very 
point of shipwreck. Even the fortitude of Columbus was scarcely 
equal to such repeated misfortunes. Again the crews resorted 
to vows in securing the intervention of Heaven for their safety, 
and every man on board promised to fast on bread and water on 
the first Saturday after their arrival in port. Again the storm 
seemed to redouble its fury, and at midnight on Saturday, March 
2d, the caravel was struck by a storm with overpowering vio- 
lence, tearing her sails to pieces and compelling her to scud 
under bare poles, and threatening her with immediate destruc- 
tion. Now again their only hope was an appeal to Heaven, and 
a lot was cast for the performance of a pilgrimage, with bare 
feet, to the shrine of Santa Maria de la Cueva, in Huelva. The 
lot was again drawn by the admiral, for he was ever a willing 
pilgrim ; though Las Casas, commenting on the singular fre- 
quency with which the lot fell to him, suggests that Providence 
intended these frequent disasters to humble the admiral's pride 
and to prevent him from arrogating to himself the glory of dis- 
coveries which belonged to God, and of which he was only the 
instrument. Columbus was himself religiously well inclined tO' 
apply to his own soul so wholesome and chastening a counsel. 
Though there were now indications of land, the storm was in- 
creasing in fur}^ ; they knew not where they were, and they feared 
they would be dashed to pieces on the rocks. On the morning 
of March 4th, at daybreak, they were off the rock Cintra, in the 
mouth of the Tagus, again within the domains of the rival sover- 
eign, the treacherous John H., King of Portugal, who had so 



ON COLUMBUS. 20/ 

recently from envy ordered the Governor of St. Mary's Island, 
Azores, to seize and detain the returning discoverers of a new 
world. But the storm was still raging, and though he distrusted 
the Portuguese Government, Columbus had no alternative but 
to enter the port for safety. He and his crew were congratu- 
lated on their safe arrival by the inhabitants, who, when they 
saw the peril of the caravel, had flocked to the church with 
lighted tapers and prayed for their safe deliverance. Their 
escape was regarded as miraculous. The oldest mariners of the 
place told Columbus they had never known so stormy a winter. 
He ardently contrasted the mild weather and placid waters of 
Hispaniola with the storms of the Eastern Hemisphere. 

Having despatched a messenger to Spain with tidings of his 
discover}^ he wrote a letter to the King of Portugal requesting 
permission to go with his vessel to Lisbon for its safety, for the 
report was circulated that she was richly freighted with gold 
and other treasure, and he felt unsafe from attack on the Tagus, 
assuring the king that he had not been to the coast of Guinea or 
other Portuguese colonies, but that he had discovered, by a 
western voyage, and just returned from, Cipango and the extreme 
provinces of India. The marvellous news now spread far and 
near, and the Nina was visited by throngs of people of every 
grade, cavaliers and officers of the crown, as well as the common 
people, all eager to listen to the startling accounts of the admiral. 
Varied effects were produced on his different visitors by the 
marvellous words of Columbus — admiration, envy, cupidity, 
curiosity, enthusiasm, and distrust. The king invited him to 
court, then being held at Valparaiso, nine leagues from Lisbon, 
and though he distrusted his good faith, Columbus thought it 
best to go and conceal his distrust, as he was already in the king's 
dominions. He was received by king and cavaliers with every 
honor, and though he congratulated the admiral, the king ex- 
pressed his apprehensions that the discovery belonged to Por- 
tugal agreeably to the capitulations of 1479 with the Castilian 
monarchs, and thought Columbus may have found a short route 
to the very countries he was himself endeavoring to find, and 
which the Papal bull had conceded to Portugal. The Portu- 
guese councillors, who, twenty years before, had scoffed at Colum- 
bus and his proposals to the crown of Portugal, endeavored to 
confirm the king's suggestions ; they suggested that Columbus 



2o8 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

was insulting Portugal by entering it as if in triumph ; that he 
had encroached upon the conceded discoveries and claims of 
Portugal ; that he was haughty, boastful, and actually revenging 
himself upon the king for rejecting his proposals. They went 
so far as to propose his assassination ! They counselled the king 
that a pretext could be found for drawing him into a quarrel ; 
that he could thus be despatched as if killed in an honorable and 
justifiable contest. Such baseness and perfidy seem incredible ; 
but they came from the same councillors who ten years before 
had advised the King of Portugal to secretly and treacherously 
rob Columbus of the glory of his discovery by sending out a 
secret expedition, guided by his maps, charts, and information, 
for the discover}^ of the promised western lands. The king was 
more honorable than his unworthy councillors, and refused to 
listen to their treacherous advice. He feignedly gave due credit 
and honor to Columbus. The council next suggested his being 
permitted to return to Spain, and before he could make another 
voyage to the lands he had discovered, that Portugal should 
send out a powerful armament, under the guidance of two Portu- 
guese mariners, who had sailed with Columbus, and seize the 
lands he had discovered, and maintain their ill-gotten possession 
by force.* That John II. should have consented and agreed to 
this nefarious proposal seems scarcely consistent with a record 
not undistinguished for uprightness ; but, to the discredit of roy- 
alty, he assented to it, resolved to put it secretly and promptly 
into execution, and he decided to appoint for this dishonest ex- 
pedition a distinguished sea captain, Don Francisco de Almeida. 
Columbus, after receiving distinguished honors at the court of 
Portugal, prepared to sail for Palos in his own caravel, prefer- 
ring this to the trip by land, which was proposed to him by King 
John, with offers to escort him honorably to the frontier. On his 
way to the caravel, at the mouth of the Tagus, escorted by Don 
Martin de Norona and a large retinue of cavaliers, himself and 
pilot mounted on mules provided by the king, he stopped at the 
monastery of San Antonio, at Villa Zanca, at her request to visit 
the Portuguese queen, and was received by her and her ladies of 
honor with the most distinguished honors. The king presented 



* Barry's De Lorgues' " Columbus," p. 215 ; Las Casas, " Hisi. Ind.," lib. i., cap 
74, MS. ; Irving's " Life of Columbus," vol i., p. 257. 



ON COLUMBUS. 209 

the admirrJ's pilot with twenty gold ducats, and in offering to 
escort himself to the frontier, ordered that horses, lodgings, and 
all things necessary to the journey be provided at the royal ex- 
pense. But Columbus availed himself of the prevailing fair 
weather, sailed from the Tagus on March 13th, arrived at Saltes 
at sunrise on the 15th, and at mid-day sailed into the harbor of 
Palos. He had sailed from this ancient port the year preceding, 
•on August 3d, the inventor of a great theory, the hope of Spain 
and of the race, the scoffed-at dreamer of new worlds. Now 
how changed, how advanced, was the condition of the man him- 
self, of the nation and sovereigns that had befriended him, and of 
the civilized world ! For by his genius and prowess Europe and 
Asia were about to embrace each other across the oceans, and 
midway lay the newly discovered continents of a new world. 
The last eight months had been the most momentous era in the 
history of mankind. Prophecy and theory had now become 
demonstration and history. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Crown the brave ! Crown the brave ! 
As through your streets they ride." 



— Hemans. 



" A thousand trumpets ring within old Barcelona's walls, 
A thousand gallant nobles throng in Barcelona's halls ; 
All meet to gaze on him who wrought a pathway for mankind, 
Through seas as broad, to worlds as rich as his triumphant mind ; 
And king and queen will grace forsooth the mariner's array — 
The lonely seaman scorned and scoffed in Palos town one day ! 
He comes — he comes ! the gates swing wide, and through the streets advance 
His cavalcade in proud parade, with plume and pennoned lance, 
And natives of those new-found worlds, and treasures all untold, 
And in the midst the admiral, his charger trapped with gold ; 
And all are wild with joy, and blithe the gladsome clarions swell, 
And dames and princes meet to greet, and loud the myriads yell ; 
They cheer, that mob, they wildly cheer — Columbus checks his rein, 
And bends him to the beauteous dames and cavaliers of Spain." 

^G. H. Supple. 

If the civilized world was electrified at the announcement that 
Columbus had returned from discovering the Western continents, 
how much more must not the little maritime port of Palos have 
been moved with joy and exultation when the great discoverer 
and his veteran mariners returned from their glorious achieve- 
ments to that historic place ! Palos had sent forth the little fleet 
that was to unite the unknown parts of the earth ; it was her priv- 
ilege now to receive back again the triumphant admiral and his 
crews, discoverers of a world ! For eight long months and more 
no tidings had been received of the forlorn hope, and the people of 
Palos had abandoned all expectation of seeing their brave friends 
and relatives again — no doubt all had been engulfed in the Sea 
of Darkness or devoured by the monsters of the deep. Their 
joy exceeded all bounds when, at mid-day, on Friday, August 3d, 
1493, they recognized the Nina returning in triumph, with the 
flags of Castile floating from her masts. The Santa Maria, it is 
true, was gone, and the Pinta had not been heard from ; but the 



ON COLUMBUS. 211 

admiral was there, the discoverer in fact of what Plato and Aris- 
totle had only dreamed of. Spain was now the foremost of mari- 
time nations, and Palos was the historic port ! The whole town 
broke forth in transports of joy and exultation ; the bells rang- 
forth their merriest notes, the cannons were fired, the shops were 
closed, the houses were festooned in gayest drapery, business 
was suspended, and the whole population turned out to welcome 
the greatest of discoverers returning in triumph. Scarcely had 
the admiral and his men landed, when the entire population 
formed in procession and marched with the returning heroes to 
the nearest church to thank God for the success of so momentous 
a voyage. If Columbus had been a noted king, says Robertson, 
he could not have received greater honors. 

In the midst of this universal joy, in which the people of the 
neighboring towns and villages were pouring in to participate, 
the Pinta entered the port from sea. Martin Alonzo Pinzon, 
who had enjoyed the opportunity of ranking almost next to 
Columbus, was disloyal to his chief, and lost all in grasping for 
what was not his own. Having taken shelter in the Bay of 
Biscay, Pinzon, thinking that the Nina with the admiral and all 
on board had perished in the storm, had addressed a letter to the 
sovereigns giving an account of the discovery, and claiming it as 
his own. He asked permission to go to court, coveting, no 
doubt, the ovation which belonged to Columbus, and which was 
then preparing for him. When he entered the harbor at Palos, 
and saw the Nina riding at anchor, and heard the sounds of 
triumph accorded to Columbus, his heart sank within him ; he 
stealthily landed from his yawl, avoiding the admiral for fear of 
arrest, and concealed himself at his home ; but when a reproach- 
ful letter from the court arrived, upbraiding him with his treach- 
ery and falsehood, and forbidding his appearance at court, he 
sickened with chagrin, and died a few days afterward of a broken 
heart. It is vain for Harrisse or Winsor to attempt any pallia- 
tion of Pinzon's conduct ; there are too many evidences of mis- 
conduct on his part to leave a doubt of his dislo3'alt3\ 

Columbus, on the other hand, in the midst of his triumph, did 
not forget the vows he had made to his heavenly patroness. 
Many of his crew asked leave to go at once to their homes to re- 
ceive the continued and joyous felicitations of their families and 
friends, but the admiral refused their petitions until they and he 



212 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

had fulfilled their vow of making a pilgrimage of thanksgiving 
at the nearest church of Our Lady on landing — a fulfilment which 
had been commenced at Santa Maria, and had been treacherously 
interrupted by the governor of the island. The shrine in which 
they now performed their grateful vow, according to all current 
history, was none other than that of Our Lady of La Rabida, and 
the generous monk, Juan Perez de Marchena, who had sustained 
Columbus in his darkest hour, and had offered up at Palos the 
mass of supplication for the departing fleet, had now the happi- 
ness of celebrating the mass of thanksgiving on its triumphant 
return. The scene that ensued, when those two tried friends 
met again at Palos, after the vicissitudes and successes which 
had involved the highest and grandest interests of mankind, must 
have been one of the most interesting and significant in the pages 
of history. Columbus and Juan Perez again prayed together ! 

It was in one of the cells of the shrine of La Rabida that 
Columbus, according to the Count de Lorgues, though without 
historical support, secluded from the rest of the world and sanc- 
tified with unceasing prayer, elaborated and meditated on that 
important project for the peace of the world — that a geographical 
and natural line of separation and partition should be drawn and 
established between the newly discovered countries of Portugal 
and Spain. It was there, too, in devout prayer and consecrated 
cell, that he conceived the nobler thought of recommending 
those rival maritime nations to refer the whole question of divid- 
ing the new lands between them to the Holy See, then the com- 
mon tribunal of arbitration for the Christian world. On this 
subject the Count de Lorgues has broken forth in the following 
enraptured though extravagant language : 

So, full of confidence as if he held the whole space of the 
globe beneath his eyes, although two thirds of it were as yet 
unknown, with a sublime boldness, or rather an angelic quiet- 
ness, he makes the section of the equator which nobody had yet 
traversed, traces across immensity a vast demarcation, draws 
from one pole to the other an ideal line which will divide the 
earth, in passing at a main distance of a hundred leagues to the 
west of the islands of Cape Verd and those of the Azores. To 
accomplish this astonishing geographical division, he chose pre- 
cisely the only point of our planet which science would choose 
in our day : the singular region of the line without magnetic 



1 



ON COLUMBUS. 213 

declination, where the transparenc}- of the waters, the balminess 
of the air, the clearness of the atmosphere, the abundance of the 
submarine vegetation, the tropical resplendency of the nights, 
and the phosphorescence of the waves indicated in the unsteady 
empire of the billows a m3^sterious demarcation made by the 
omnipotent Creator. 

" This vast calculation was the boldest conception that ever 
issued from the human intellect. Still, Columbus, without being 
astonished, without hesitating, without perhaps being aware of 
the vastness of his operation, calmly takes his calculations of 
demarcation, and simply demands that they be sent to Rome." 

As might well be supposed, the letter of Columbus to the Span- 
ish sovereigns produced intense sensation at court. The event 
was regarded as the most extraordinary and important one of 
their eventful reigns ; the small territories of the Moors had been 
acquired after eight centuries of war, and with immense loss of 
human life and expenditure of treasure. Here, on the other 
hand, vast empires and boundless continents were acquired by 
the voyage of a small caravel ! Besides all this, the glory ac- 
quired by Spain was imperishable. Columbus had proceeded 
as far as Seville. Here he received the sovereigns' letter, ad- 
dressed " To Don Christopher Columbus, our Admiral of the 
Ocean Sea, Viceroy and Governor of the Islands discovered in 
the Indies," expressing their unbounded pleasure, inviting him 
to court, and suggesting preparations for another and more ex- 
tensive expedition to the Indies. In obedience to their request, 
he made a memorandum of the ships, men, and supplies needed 
for another expedition, commenced the necessary preliminaries 
of preparation for the second undertaking, and started for the 
court at Barcelona, carrying with him the companions of his 
voyage, the six Indians he had brought from the Indies, and the 
many and interesting specimens of the productions, curiosities, 
and articles he had brought home with him. His journey from 
Seville to Barcelona was one continual triumphant procession. 
The people on the route turned out in mass to honor the great 
discoverer and to see the wonders he had brought back with him 
from the new world. His progress was impeded by the throngs 
of people, all pressing forward to see himself, the Indians, and 
the other wonders he displayed. The streets were crowded, the 
windows and balconies filled with eager and admiring spectators, 



214 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

the air was rent with applause, and ovation after ovation awaited 
the hero of the age as he passed from city to city. The wonders 
which the people saw only excited their imaginations to fill the 
newl}- discovered lands with other and more startling marvels. 
The court resolved to give him a triumphal reception at Bar- 
celona, and here he arrived by the middle of April. As he 
approached a cavalcade of youthful courtiers, gayly dressed 
hidalgos, and the people of the city advanced to receive him. 
No Roman conqueror ever returned to the imperial city with 
more renown or honor. The arrangement of his suite was 
admirable — preceded by mariners of the Nina under arms, the 
royal standard borne by a pilot, and others bearing branches of 
unknown trees and shrubs, enormous calabashes, specimens of 
raw cotton, pimento, cocoas, ginger, and other products. The 
Indians, bearing ornaments of barbaric gold on their persons, 
and painted according to their native customs, advanced behind 
them ; next were carried a great variety of living parrots, with 
their gorgeous plumage, and stuffed birds of rich and many 
colors, animals of unknown kinds, and plants of rare qualities 
and brilliant foliage ; also Indian coronets, bracelets, and other 
barbarous decorations of gold. Then came the admiral, mounted 
on a splendid Castilian horse, and surrounded by a brilliant 
cavalcade of Spanish chivalry and aristocracy. The grand old 
city was in all its brightest attire ; the streets, windows, bal- 
conies, and even the roofs were crowded with people to see these 
wonders of a new world, and the great and wonderful man who 
had discovered another hemisphere, with its islands and empires. 
The gold of the new world especially made a bright and fasci- 
nating show. The royal throne was erected in public, under a 
rich canopy of gold brocade, in a spacious saloon of regal splen- 
dor, and here Ferdinand and Isabella received the admiral in 
state, attended by the young Prince Juan, and by the grandees, 
dignitaries, and nobility of Spain. Though surrounded by the 
noblest of the Spanish chivalry, Columbus towered above all, 
and won admiration by his tall and dignified stature and car- 
riage, the smile of conscious yet modest triumph, and the digni- 
fied expression of acknowledged worth. He was received by 
the sovereigns with the highest honors a subject could receive. 
They lifted him from his knees when he knelt to kiss their hands, 
and ordered him to be seated in their presence, a richly deco- 



ON COLUMBUS. 21$ 

rated arm-chair having been provided for him. He now related, 
at their request, the great events he had achieved, described the 
various islands and lands he had discovered, and displayed the 
birds, animals, specimens of gold in the dust or in crude masses 
or in savage ornaments, and especially the living natives of the 
countries he had visited. The king and queen were moved to 
tears, and sinking upon their knees, all present following their 
example, the Te Deiim was chanted with intense devotion and 
gratitude. Such was the grandeur, unity, enthusiasm, and de- 
votion manifested by the entire assemblage — sovereigns, nobility, 
and people — on this memorable occasion, that Las Casas speaks of 
them all as " Christian souls enjoying a foretaste of the joys of 
Paradise." The discourse of Columbus on his discovery, on the 
new countries and peoples found, and on the productions of the 
new world, was marked with learning, scientific arrangement, 
rare and beautiful thoughts and illustrations, and with consum- 
mate wisdom. He seemed like one rarely and richly gifted. Dis- 
missed with the highest honors, he was escorted to the lodgings 
prepared for him by the lords of the court, and by the populace.* 
The city was given over to universal and unrestrained delight 
and exultation. 

The news of the discover)^ of the western islands and countries 
produced a profound sensation throughout Europe. The illus- 
trious Sebastian Cabot, first explorer or discoverer of our own 
coasts, then at the court of Henry VH. of England, acknowl- 
edged that the discovery was rather a divine than a human 
work.f Great cosmographers and mariners everywhere re- 
joiced. Rome was especially delighted with this great triumph 
of science, the opening of so vast and new a field of Christian 
zeal ; and the sovereign Pontiff, with the College of Cardinals 
and dignitaries of the Church and the ambassadors of all the 
nations there assembled, united in public manifestations of joy 
and services of thanksgiving. The delight of the learned world 
was well represented and expressed by the joyful tears shed at 
this great event by the learned Pomponius Loetus.:}: 

* Las Casas, " Hist. Ind.," lib. i., cap. Ixxvii. ; Helps, " Life of Christopher Colum- 
bus," ch. V. ; Mufioz, "Hist, del N. Mundo," t. i., liv. ; Barry's De Lorgues' "Co- 
lumbus," p. 231 ; Tarducci's " Columbus," vol. i., pp. 233-36 ; Fernando Colombo, 
cap. xii. 

f Hackluyt, "Collection of Voyages," p. 7. 

X " Letters of Peter Martyr," lib. 153 ; Irving's " Columbus," vol. i., p. 273. 



2l6 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

A great and representative historian and geographer of that 
time, a contemporary of Columbus, who had communicated the 
discovery to Pomponius Loetus, the celebrated Peter Martyr, 
thus addresses that eminent scholar : " You tell me, my amiable 
Pomponius, that you leaped for joy, and that your delight was 
mingled with tears, when you read my epistle certifying to you 
the hitherto hidden world of the antipodes. You have felt and 
acted as became a man eminent for learning, for I can conceive 
no aliment more delicious than such tidings to a cultivated and 
ingenuous mind. I feel a wonderful exultation of spirits when 
I converse with intelligent men, who have returned from those 
regions. It is like an accession of wealth to a miser. Our 
minds, soiled and debased by the common concerns of life and 
the vices of society, become elevated and ameliorated by con- 
templating such glorious events." The event thus alluded to by 
the great and shining intellects of that age is also mentioned in 
many contemporaneous chronicles ; and yet, owing to the fact 
that the discovery was announced to the world, even b}^ the 
great discoverer himself, as merely a discovery of the extreme 
and unknown parts of Asia, these allusions are brief and casual. 
Neither Columbus nor his most learned contemporaries knew 
the vastness and actual importance of the discovery ; much less 
did mankind in general. Had it been known that new conti- 
nents, surrounded by oceans and similar in their relations to the 
earth to the Eastern continents, had been discovered ; had it 
been known that these continents would become the seats of 
great and free republics and empires, realizing the highest de- 
velopments of civilization, of free government, and of civil and 
religious liberty, as we now enjo}" them, the impression would 
have been far different ; the joy of mankind would have been 
more exultant and unbounded. 

It was natural for the Count de Lorgues to take the religious 
rather than the scientific view of the subject, as he more particu- 
larly represents that phase of these events and of the life and 
work of Columbus, and yet, like the admiral himself, he recog- 
nizes the union of science and religion in the achievement. Thus, 
he, while extolling the learning, science, and experience of 
Columbus, and especially his great common sense, yet attributes 
a supernatural character to the enterprise : " The superiority of 
Columbus, of his genius and of his grandeur, was owing to his 



ON COLUMBUS. 21/ 

religious faith." And again he says : " He who does not believe 
in the supernatural cannot comprehend Columbus." The great 
admiral himself attributes his success to the favor of Heaven. 
Scarcel}" had he retired from the presence of the sovereigns and 
from the public triumphs he received at Barcelona to his own 
private apartments, when, falling upon his knees, he made a vow 
to redeem the Holy Land from the hands of the infidels, and for 
this purpose to furnish from the immense incomes he expected 
to receive from the new world, within seven years, an army of 
four thousand horse and fifty thousand foot, and a similar force 
within the five following years. This vow was not only recorded 
in one of his letters to Ferdinand and Isabella, but was also com- 
municated in a letter to Pope Alexander VI., to whom, in 1502, 
he gives the reasons for his inability up to that time to fulfil it. 
There is surely no trait more conspicuous in the character of 
Columbus than his acknowledged magnanimity. 

The fame of Columbus was thus spread throughout the learned 
and civilized world. In Spain he stood at the highest point of 
honor a subject could attain. Admiral of the ocean, viceroy and 
governor-general, he stood as a man in the world almost without 
a peer. He received in public and in private the most unusual 
honors. Admitted freely to the royal presences, consulted by 
the king and queen on every detail of the second expedition, and 
on the general affairs of the Western lands ; while the king took 
him for his companion in his trips on horseback in the city and 
countr}^ having Columbus on one side and Prince Juan on the 
other, the queen created new armorial bearings for him, com- 
bining the ro3^al arms of Castile and Aragon, the castle and the 
lion, with his own bearings, which were a group of islands sur- 
rounded by the waves of the ocean. The pension promised by 
the sovereigns to the one who should first discover land was 
awarded to him, because he had first seen the light on the shore. 
The highest dignitaries of the Church and the proudest of the 
Spanish nobilit}' vied with each other in honoring the great dis- 
coverer, and many were the banquets and entertainments given 
in his honor. The Grand Cardinal of Spain, Mendoza, gave a 
great banquet in his honor, and it was on this occasion that the 
well-known anecdote of the egg is alleged to have occurred. 
Columbus was assigned the highest place at the banquet, 
seated under a raised dais, and served with covered dishes, like 



21 8 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

a monarch, each dish presented to him being tasted before him, 
according to royal etiquette. He received on all occasions the 
ceremonious honors due to a viceroy. While the distinguished 
company were at dinner, a courtier with more tongue than brains 
is said to have asked Columbus somewhat abruptly, and with 
envy toward a foreigner, whether he did not think that if he had 
not succeeded in discovering the Indies there was not in Spain 
some other person who would have been capable of doing so ; 
Columbus, without making any other reply, according to this 
oft-repeated but unauthentic story, called for an egg, and when 
it was brought he asked any one of the company that could do 
so, to make it stand on end. Each one tried it, but failed, amid 
the laughter of the guests ; then Columbus took the egg, and 
striking it gently on one end, so as to break it slightly, thus 
caused it to stand on one end. It was in this way that he showed 
how easy it seemed for any one to discover the new world after 
another had shown the way. This anecdote has been questioned. 
While Mr. Irving and other historians cite it as characteristic 
of the admiral's practical sagacity and readiness of expedients, 
others, such as the Count de Lorgues, while relating it, reject it 
as frivolous, and as a story of a mere juggler's trick, unworthy of 
and unlike the gravity and dignity of Columbus. Tarducci dis- 
credits the story entirely. Yet the anecdote is of universal 
popularity. Lamartine goes so far as to relate it as occurring at 
the table of King Ferdinand. 

In keeping with the envious disposition of ungenerous minds 
to disparage the great discovery of Columbus, after it had been 
accomplished, various attempts were made to deprive him of the 
glory of his achievement. One of these unwoithy efforts was an 
idle tale to the effect that Columbus received information of 
the existence of land in the western parts of the ocean from an 
old tempest-tossed pilot, who had been driven by violent east- 
erly winds westwardly across the Atlantic, and on his return he 
and his companions were hospitably received by Columbus as 
guests in his house at Porto Santo ; that one after another of 
the survivors of this expedition died, until only one, the pilot, 
whose name was afterward asserted to be x\lonzo Sanchez de 
Huelva, survived, and he finally, like his companions, all ex- 
hausted by their recent hardships at sea, also died in the house 
of Columbus, bequeathing to him his written accoiuits of an un- 



ON COLUMBUS. 219 

known land in the West. Although a number of authors either 
accepted or repeated the story, as happened also with the inven- 
tion that Columbus was never married a second time, it is now 
quite generally if not universally rejected as an invention of the 
envious to deprive Columbus of the well-merited glory of having 
discovered the new world. It has no greater foundation in fact 
than the fabulous island of St. Brandan, or the island of the seven 
cities, or the landing of Martin Behem, in the course of an African 
expedition, accidentally on the coast of South America. While 
a tempest-tossed and shipwrecked sailor, who, on being cast on 
shore, sickened and died, could hardly be believed to have been 
able to write out an account of his wanderings at sea, it must be 
remembered that the indigent condition of Columbus at Funchal, 
for thither we must transfer the story from Porto Santo, pre- 
cludes the idea of his being able to entertain so many guests, or 
of his having a house of his own at all. Benzoni states that the 
story was expressly invented " to diminish the immortal fame of 
Christopher Columbus, as there were many (in Spain) who could 
not endure that a foreigner and an Italian should have acquired 
so much honor and so much glory, not only for the Spanish 
kingdom, but also for the other nations of the world." 

The startling discovery by Columbus of a new route, as it was 
believed to be, to the Indies, was singularly made known first to 
Portugal, the rival of Spain in maritime discoveries and conquests, 
by the accident of his being driven by storm into a Portuguese 
port. The relations of Spain and Portugal became now more 
than ever strained. It was under such circumstances that Chris- 
tian nations, fortunately, acknowledged a common head, an im- 
partial arbitrator between nations, a recognized preserver of the 
peace of Christendom. Such were the sovereign Pontiffs in 
those days. There never was a case in the history of the nations 
when the peaceful intervention of arbitration was more necessary 
to prevent the outbreak of war, which would have been a war 
greatl}' detrimental to the prosecution of the most important 
geographical discoveries. Alexander VI. was now Pope. His 
predecessors, as early as 1438, had permitted the Spaniards to 
sail west and the Portuguese to sail south, as witnessed by the 
bulls of Popes Martin V. and Eugenius IV. Nicholas V. had sub- 
sequently confirmed these papal concessions, and, in 1479, the 
two rival maritime powers had agreed to respect each other's 



220 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

rights under these decisions. How far the Portuguese king had 
now kept the spirit of his agreement, when he permitted with 
impunity proposals to be made to him for the murder of Colum- 
bus, and basely accepted proposals for sending out a secret ex- 
pedition to seize the western lands he had discov^ered and taken 
possession of for Spain, does not seem to be a question admitting 
of much doubt. In the mean time, Spain was hurrying its prep- 
arations to send out a second expedition under Columbus to 
secure and follow up its western discoveries. When Columbus 
landed in Portugal after discovering the supposed Indies, the 
king of that country plainly intimated to him that the lands he 
had taken possession of for Spain lay within the previous papal 
concessions made to Portugal, and was assured by Columbus to 
the contrary. Negotiations now followed between the two com- 
peting powers, Ferdinand was prompt in appealing to Rome 
for a confirmation of his possessions taken by Columbus, as Por- 
tugal had done under the predecessors of Alexander VI. 

The part which Columbus may have taken in the matter of 
establishing the famous line of demarcation is one of the con- 
troverted points in his remarkable career. Roselly de Lorgues 
and other authors most partial to Columbus have contended 
that in his cell at the Convent of La Rabida, where he is be- 
lieved to have rested in waiting for a summons to court from 
the sovereigns, after his return from his first voyage, Columbus 
was the first to conceive the thought of establishing a line of 
demarcation between the new countries of the earth that should 
belong respectively to Spain and Portugal,* and that he was 
the first to suggest the selection for this purpose of the line of 
no variation of the needle, which on his first outward voyage he 
had discovered at the distance of a hundred leagues vv'est of the 
Cape Verd and the Azores islands. At this mysterious line 
there seemed to be a sudden change in the sky and stars, in the 
temperature of the air and sea ; and the needle, which in ap- 
proaching it had deviated to the east, here stood still, and on 
passing it commenced to deviate to the west, as if crossing a 
ridge of the earth, and the polar star described a daily circle of 
five degrees.f John Fiske simply relates the selection of the 



* Dr. Barry's translation of Count de Lorgues' "Columbus," p. 221. 
f Tarducci's " Life of Columbus," vol. ii., p. 76. 



ON COLUMBUS. 221 

line of no deflection as an liistorical fact, giving rise to no con- 
troversy for him to enter upon ; hut Justin Winsor rather scoffs 
at the claim that Columbus had anything to do with the selection 
or suggestion of this line for the line of demarcation. His gen- 
eral style of handling controverted subjects in the career of 
Columbus, and he controverts many, is exemplified in the follow- 
ing passage on this subject : " To make a physical limit serve a 
political one was an obvious recourse at a time when the line of 
no variation was thought to be unique, and of a true north and 
south direction ; but within a century the observers found three 
other lines, as Acosta tells us in his ' Historia Natural de las 
Indias,' in 1589 ; and there proved to be a persistent migration 
of these lines, all little suited to terrestrial demarcations. Roselly 
de Lorgues and the canonizers, however, having given to Colum- 
bus the planning of the line in his cell at Rabida, think, with a 
surprising prescience on his part, and with a very convenient 
obliviousness on their part, that he had chosen ' precisely the 
only point of our planet which science would choose in our day 
— a mysterious demarcation made by its omnipotent Creator,' in 
sovereign disregard, unfortunately, of the laws of His own uni- 
verse !"* 

It seems scarcely just or logical to dispose of the subject in 
this way. There are some uncontroverted facts which seem to 
throw light upon the claim thus made in behalf of Columbus. 
We do not know historically that he wrote a letter from his cell 
at La Rabida to Ferdinand and Isabella, suggesting the line of 
no variations as the line of demarcation between the possessions 
of Spain and Portugal. But we do know that immediately after 
the arrival of Columbus at Barcelona and his interviews there 
with the Spanish sovereigns, an ambassador was despatched to 
Rome to ask, and he obtained, from the Pope, Alexander VI., 
the establishment of a line of demarcation which would secure 
to Spain the exclusive right to the lands discovered by Colum- 
bus. The most important of all the facts bearing on the subject 
is that Columbus had recently discovered the line of no varia- 
tion, and had necessarily taken a lively and leading interest in its 
nature, effects, and future possibilities of utility. One of the 
severest injunctions imposed on him was that he should steer 



Winsor's "Columbus," etc., p. 254. 



222 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

clear of the dominions and discoveries of the Portuguese, and 
the rival claims of those two competing powers constituted one 
of the foremost and burning questions of the day. Columbus is 
known to have felt an intense interest in everything connected 
with or flowing from his own great achievement. The attendant 
circumstances would rationally point him out, in this remarkable 
event, as a figure scarcely less if not more important in fact and 
indirectly than either the King of Spain or the King of Por- 
tugal, or even the Pope. But for his services and achievements 
there would have been no need of a line of demarcation, nor 
would there have been known so ready a mode of solving the 
difficulty as the line of no variation. It was not to be supposed 
that so fervent a Catholic, and so prominent and indispensable an 
actor in the crucial events leading up to it, could have been a 
silent or indifferent witness of this remarkable exercise of the 
papal power and jurisdiction. It is far more probable that so 
ardent a supporter of the universal jurisdiction of the Popes as 
then exercised, as the arbitrators of Christendom — that one who 
was then contemplating his own proposal to the Holy See for 
another crusade to recover the Holy Sepulchre — should have 
been second to any one in suggesting this obviously necessary 
appeal to and recognition of the papal power. The heart and 
the face of Columbus were always turned to Rome. 

Much speculation has been indulged in by theologians, publi- 
cists, and historians as to the origin of the power exercised by the 
Popes in disposing of temporal empires and kingdoms, and espe- 
cially in partitioning among Christian princes the heathen and 
unconverted countries of the earth. The most extraordinary 
instance of the exercise of this power, the one which affected the 
right and ownership of an entire hemisphere or half of the earth, 
and which was most far-reaching in its scope and effects, was 
this very bull of Pope Alexander VI., the bull Inter Cetera, by 
which the famous line of demarcation was established between 
the two great maritime and discovering nations, Spain and Por- 
tugal. It is doubtful whether this power was ever traceable or 
was ever traced to the fictitious " Donation of Constantine. " It 
was not of sudden creation ; it was rather the offspring of the 
gradual growth of ages, of the exigencies of the kingdoms of the 
world, and the consent of princes. Popes Gregory VII., in the 
eleventh century, and Innocent IV., in the thirteenth, seem to 



ON COLUMBUS. 225 

have claimed such authority as inherent in the papacy, and 
Alvaro Pelayo, the Franciscan monk, and Agostino Trionfi, in 
the fourteenth century, also maintained it in its fullest extent, 
and maintained that the Popes were suzerains of the whole earth, 
and had absolute power to dispose not only of all Christian king- 
doms, but also of all heathen lands and powers.* The Church 
has never defined such a power as among the powers conferred 
on the Popes by divine right. The only correct method of view- 
ing the subject from the historical point of view, which recog- 
nizes the fact that such power was, indeed, exercised by the 
Popes in those centuries, is that its actual origin is historically 
traced to the consent of reigning sovereigns, and that, having 
served its purposes in those ages, wherein it was recognized, it 
has now ceased to exist or to be claimed The following passage 
from the recognized authority of the Most Rev. Francis Patrick 
Kenrick, Archbishop of Baltimore from 1851-63, will be read 
with conclusive effect upon all candid minds if 

" The bull of Alexander VI., fixing limits for the discoveries of 
the kings of Spain and Portugal, is frequently represented as the 
most extravagant instance of papal pretensions ; yet learned 
men, Protestant as well as Catholic, regard it only as a solemn 
sanction of rights already acquired according to the laws of 
nations, and as a measure directed to prevent war between 
Christian princes. It is certain, as Washington Irving:}: well 
observes, that Ferdinand and Isabella conceived, and in their 
application to the Pontiff stated, that their title to the newly dis- 
covered lands was, in the opinion of many learned men, suffi- 
ciently established by the formal possession taken of them by 
Columbus, in the name of the Spanish crown ; but they desired 
a public recognition of their right, lest others should profit by 
the discovery who had not shared in the enterprise. From the 
position which the Popes long occupied as fathers of princes and 
highest expounders of law and of the principles of justice, his act 
was the most solemn confirmation of the title, and the greatest 
safeguard against encroachment. The terms of ' giving, grant- 



* Baronius, " Annales, " torn, xvii., p. 430 ; Alvaro Pelayo, " De Planctu Ecclesise," 
1350; Venice, 1560. See also a note on this subject in John Fiske's " Discovery of 
America," vol. i , pp. 455-58. 

t " The Primacy of the Apostolic See Vindicated," Baltimore, 1855, pp. 314, 315. 

X " Life and Writings of Christopher Columbus," 1. v. c. viii., p. ib6. 



224 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

ing, and bestowing of the plenitude of authority,' are only de- 
signed to express in the fullest and strongest manner the pontiti- 
cal sanction and confirmation. ' The Roman Pontiffs,' says Car- 
dinal Balufifi, ' as universal fathers, not because they imagined 
themselves to be the lords of the whole earth, but in order to 
prevent the effusion of Christian blood, found themselves, at 
the epoch of the discovery of America, in circumstances which 
rendered it desirable that they should divide the countries, and 
mark mutual limits to the conquests of the nations that took arms 
against unknown nations. ' * Wheaton, in his great work on 
international law, observes : ' As between the Christian nations, 
the Sovereign Pontiff was the supreme arbiter of conflicting 
claims ; hence the famous bull issued by Pope Alexander VI. in 
1493.''!- ' This bold stretch of papal authority,' says Prescott,:{: 
* was in a measure justified by the event, since it did, in fact, de- 
termine the principles on which the vast extent of unappropriated 
empire in the Eastern and Western hemispheres was ultimately 
divided between two petty States of Europe.' It should not sur- 
prise us that the right to give, as it were, a charter for the discovery 
of unknown lands to a national corporation in a Christian confed- 
eracy should be recognized in him whose ofihce imposed on him 
the duty of spreading the Gospel throughout all nations. This 
temporal attribution might easily attach itself, by general consent, 
to his spiritual supremacy, the exercise of which, in the diffusion 
of religion, it facilitated, by the support and protection given in 
return by the princes whose enterprise was favored. The per- 
sonal character of the Pontiff did not disqualify him, in their 
minds, from discharging the high function of arbiter between 
them ; and Divine Providence gave to the world this sublime 
instance of the salutary influence of the papacy in directing an 
enterprise which has resulted in the discovery of the new world." 
Mr, Fiske has well said : " As between the two rival powers, 
the Pontiff's arrangement was made in a spirit of even-handed 
justice." And again : "It was a substantial reward for the 
monarchs who had completed the overthrow of Mohammedan 
rule in Spain, and it afforded them opportunities for further good 



* " L'America un tempo Spagnuola," da Gaetano Baluffi, Ancona, 1S44. 
f " Elements of International Law," Part IL, chap, iv., p. 240. 
t " Ferdinand and Isabella," vol. ii., chap, xviii. 



ON COLUMBUS. 22$ 

work in converting the heatlien inhabitants of the islands and 
mainland of Asia." * 

In confirmation of the view that Columbus must have taken an 
important part in the selection of the papal hne of demarcation 
in 1493, it may be mentioned that the question of this line was 
again raised in 1494, and the readjustment of it was under con- 
sideration at the urgent demand of Portugal, which was dissatis- 
fied with the line as established by Pope Alexander VI., and 
then the Spanish sovereigns made a special and pressing com- 
munication to Columbus, who was then in Hispaniola, on the 
subject. While they informed him that the principles of an 
adjustment between Spain and Portugal had been agreed upon, 
informed him what they were, and requested him to respect 
them in the course of his discoveries, yet, as the adjustment of 
the same and the drawing of the proposed new line was so im- 
portant as to render his presence in Spain and counsel at the 
convention desirable, he was requested to return to Spain and 
take part in this adjustment ; and in case it was not in his power 
to leave the new world at that juncture, he was requested to 
send his brother Bartholomew, or any other competent person 
he should select for this service, and to send by such person the 
maps, charts, and designs, such as he might consider as of ser- 
vice in such a negotiation. f As neither Columbus nor Bartholo- 
mew could leave Hispaniola at that time, the admiral's brother 
Diego was fully instructed and sent to Spain to represent the 
admiral at this important conference. 

After considering this subject, the able publicist, Francesco 
Tarducci, gives his clear judgment of the part taken by Colum- 
bus in this affair, as follows : " No doubt the idea of placing the 
line at that distance was suggested to the Pope by Columbus 
himself, who had derived it from the observation of various 
strange phenomena at that place.":}: Alexander VI. acted with 
extraordinary promptness in this affair — a promptness which indi- 
cated that the crisis between Spain and Portugal was urgent. 
Thus on- May 3d, 1493, he issued his celebrated Bull of Demar- 
cation, conferring upon Spain all lands already discovered or 
thereafter to be discovered in the western ocean, with jurisdic- 

* " The Discovery of America," vol. i., pp. 454, 455. 

f Irving's " Life of Columbus," vol. ii., p. 39. 

X Tarducci's " Life of Columbus," Brownson's translation, vol. i., p. 246, note. 



226 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

tion and privileges in all respects similar to those formerly be- 
stowed upon Portugal ; but, in further proof of the urgency of 
the case, Alexander VI. on the following day issued his second 
bull, whereby, in order to prevent any occasion of misunder- 
standing between the rival nations, he decreed that all lands dis- 
covered or to be discovered to the west of a meridian one hun- 
dred leagues west of the Azores and Cape Verd Islands should 
belong to Spain. It does not redound much to the credit of 
John II. of Portugal that he remained unsatisfied with the de- 
cision of the very tribunal he had on several previous occasions 
invoked in his own behalf. In the present concession to Spain, 
as in previous ones to Portugal, the favorable action of the Holy 
See was always based upon the condition that Portugal and 
Spain should send out missionaries for the conversion of the 
heathen nations to Christianity. Even now we find in the pages 
of Justin Winsor's book a reluctant admission that Columbus had 
exerted some influence in the selection of the line of demarcation, 
for he says : " It will be observed that in the placing of this line 
the magnetic phenomena which Columbus had observed on his 
recent voyage were not forgotten, if the coincidence can be so 
regarded. Humboldt suggests that it can." * 

Amid the honors and dignities heaped upon Columbus from 
sovereigns, princes, nations, and pontiffs ; amid the distractions 
and festivities of the rejoicing court ; amid the engrossing labors 
and duties he sustained in preparing for his second voyage across 
the Atlantic, it is greatly to the honor of Columbus that his 
thoughts reverently turned to his venerable father, who was still 
surviving at Genoa, and who had lived to see and rejoice at the 
brilliant successes of his son. Columbus sent to his father a trusty 
messenger bearing the evidences of his filial love and devotion. 
At the same time, he requested his father to permit his younger 
brother, Diego Columbus, who was till then assisting his father 
at the trade of wool-combing, to come to him in Spain and enter 
the service of the sovereigns, under the admiral's command. 
The venerable father now willingly parted with his last remain- 
ing son. We shall subsequently see Giacomo, whose name in 
Spanish was Diego Colon, serving as aide-de-camp to the great 
admiral, and as governor ad interim. 



* Winsor's " Columbus," p. 254. 



ON COLUMBUS. 22/ 

Shortly after his arrival at Barcelona, Diego Columbus took 
a prominent part in a novel and truly interesting and important 
ceremony. The seven Indians whom Columbus had brought 
to Spain from the islands in the western ocean had been sedu- 
lously instructed in the Christian faith, and now all of them, of 
their own motion, asked for the privilege of receiving Christian 
baptism. They were found, upon examination, worthy of this 
grace, and the sovereigns resolved that the event should be 
celebrated with solemn religious pomp and grandeur. At the 
baptismal ceremony the king, Prince Juan, Don Diego Colum- 
bus, and several of the first grandees of the court were the 
sponsors or godfathers. The reason assigned, according to the 
Count de Lorgues, for Columbus not becoming one of the spon- 
sors was, that he was the father of all the Indians, and the 
Church did not permit the father to become the godfather for 
his own children.* 

During the diplomatic game which, as we have stated, was 
carried on between Ferdinand and his royal cousin and rival, 
John II. of Portugal, each sovereign was secretly struggling to 
be the first to dispatch a fleet to secure the islands and countries 
which Columbus had discovered as supposed parts of India. 
But Ferdinand was more crafty than his wily competitor, and he 
succeeded in being the first to send out his fleet ; so that Por- 
tugal for a while was content to continue her explorations along 
the coast of iVfrica, until the Cape was doubled and the southern 
route to India accomplished. These expeditions engrossed the 
attention of Portugal for some years, and achieved success and 
honor for that kingdom. 

Ferdinand and Isabella now bent all their energies to forward 
the "sailing of the second expedition under Columbus, in order to 
secure to themselves the full measure of success in respect to 
the lands already discovered, and those which were yet to be 
reached. But in order that all the affairs of state relating to the 
Indies and the future prosecution of the great enterprises in- 
volved in the recent discoveries should be adequately promoted 
and administered, the sovereigns now commenced the foundation 
of that official and powerful organization which was afterward 



* Tarducci's " Life of Columbus," vol. i., p. 243 ; Irving's " Columbus," vol. i., 
p. 285 ; De Lorgues' " Columbus," translated by Dr. Barry, p. 250. 



228 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

SO prominent as the Council of Indies, The selection of the 
officials to fill these important offices was not the most happy. 
Columbus was desirous of going to Rome in order to give the 
Sovereign Pontiff in person an account of his discoveries and of 
the discovered countries, and to receive the blessing of the Holy 
See ; but the 'pressing duties which now occupied all his time 
prevented him from doing so, and he was compelled to meet and 
co-operate with the newly appointed officials presiding over the 
affairs of the Indies. The sovereigns had appointed as Director- 
General of the Marine one whom the Count de Lorgues, follow- 
ing Las Casas and other authors, justly described as a " worldly- 
minded ecclesiastic, Don Juan de Fonseca, Archdeacon of Seville, 
but a bureaucrat by instinct, and a brother to men in high credit 
with King Ferdinand ;" an appointment which was afterward 
the source of much of the vexations and injustices which Colum- 
bus had to endure, and an obstacle in the way of the western 
enterprises. Juan de Soria, a man who resembled Fonseca in 
his instincts and methods, was appointed Comptroller-General, 
and Francisco Pinelo was appointed Paymaster. All historians 
represent Fonseca as a man of great ability for business, for he 
not only retained his offices during life, but was successively 
promoted to the Sees of Bajadoz, Cordova, Palencia, and Burgos, 
and finally to the patriarchate of the Indies. Mr. Irving but 
expresses the general sentiment of history when he says that 
" he was malignant and vindictive ; and, in the gratification of 
his private resentments, not only heaped wrongs and sorrows 
upon the most illustrious of the early discoverers, but frequently 
impeded the progress of their enterprises." * 

The offices of the Director-General of the Indies and of his 
officials was located at Seville ; a custom-house was established 
at Cadiz for the trade of the Indies, and a correspondent 
office was directed to be founded in Hispaniola under the direc- 
tion of Columbus. The strictest regulations were promulgated 
for the management of Indian affairs. Columbus now prepared 
to take his leave of the sovereigns ; he received by their orders 
from Francisco Pinelo a thousand doubloons of gold for his ex- 
penses ; an order was issued for supplying him and his five domes- 
tics gratuitously with all necessary entertainment wherever he 



Barry's De Lorgues' " Columbus," p. 251 ; Irving's " Columbus," vol. i., p. 2S2. 



ON COLUMBUS. 229 

arrived ; he was named Captain-General of the Fleet of the 
Indies, was authorized to make all appointments to office in the 
new government, the royal seal was confided to him to be affixed 
to such documents as he might issue in their names ; and by a 
solemn act the sovereigns ratified and confirmed to him all the 
titles and privileges stipulated for by the compact entered into 
at Santa Fe. When he took his final leave of the king and queen 
he was conducted to his lodgings by the entire court with great 
pomp and honor. Thus loaded with honors, dignities, and 
power, Columbus repaired again to the active scenes of maritime 
preparation. The instructions he received for the government 
of the Indies were all based upon his own suggestions, and 
the prevalence of a zealous and devout impress is observable 
through all of them, which reflected the pious sentiments, char- 
acters, and aspirations of Isabella and Columbus. The conver- 
sion of the heathens was the great feature in the plans and in- 
structions stamped upon the new government. Twelve apostolic 
men were appointed missionaries for the new spiritual vineyard 
to be cultivated in the western world, and a brief from Rome 
appointed 'Father Boil, a religious of the Benedictine Order, to 
be Vicar- Apostolic of the Indies. This apostolic band was fur- 
nished with a complete ecclesiastical equipment for all religious 
services and functions, and the queen gave from her own royal 
chapel the ornaments and vestments for the most solemn cere- 
monies of the Church. This noble lady, like the admiral, had 
an earnest desire for the conversion of the natives, and from 
their gentleness and amiability of character it was hoped that a 
rich harvest of souls would be gained for the Lord. The strict- 
est injunctions were given for the punishment of any acts of in- 
justice or wrong which Spaniards might inflict on these innocent 
people. It would have been well if adequate power and means 
had been given to Columbus to enforce this order. 

When Ferdinand heard, through his secret dispatches from 
Lisbon, of the designs of the Portuguese King to hasten an 
expedition intended to appropriate by an early possession the 
new countries in the western ocean to the crown of Portugal, 
orders were issued to Columbus and all the officers of the Span- 
ish crown concerned in the Indian service that the second vo}'- 
age to the Indies should be expedited, and for the sailing of the 
fleet as soon as possible. In order to defray the expenses of this 



230 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

noted expedition, two thirds of the church tithes were placed in 
the hands of Pinelo, the funds realized from the sale of the con- 
fiscated jewels and properties of the banished Jews, and in case 
these funds proved inadequate, Pinelo was authorized by a loan 
to raise the necessary amounts. The military stores and arms 
left from the war with the Moors were drawn into the service of 
the ships, provisions of all kinds were provided under requisi- 
tions of the crown, and artillery, powder, muskets, lances, corse- 
lets, cross-bows, and other arms and warlike articles provided. 
Columbus was clothed with fuller powers of appointment to 
office, and with unlimited powers for the government and man- 
agement of the crews, of the ships, and all the establishments 
connected with the Indian countries. Rumors arriving from 
time to time that John II. was endeavoring to anticipate the sail- 
ing of the fleet by one of his own, though it was always treacher- 
ously announced that the Portuguese ships were merel}^ destined 
for the African coast, there was a feverish anxiety in Spain to 
get the new fleet under sail, and all the energies and resources 
of the kingdom were bent to this object. Columbus having left 
the court at Barcelona on May 23d, he and Fonseca and Soria 
joined all their energies at Seville to expedite the embarcation 
of the new fleet of seventeen vessels. Pilots were engaged, and 
expert husbandmen, miners, carpenters, and mechanics of every 
trade were enlisted ; and horses for military service and for 
agricultural work were purchased, and cattle and animals of all 
kinds, seeds and implements for all purposes provided. Living 
plants, vines, sugar-canes, grafts, saplings were to be trans- 
planted to the virgin soil of the new world. Great quantities of 
every kind of merchandise, besides trinkets, beads, hawks' bells, 
looking-glasses, munitions of war, medicines, wines and liquors, 
and hospital supplies for the sick. 

The fame of this great expedition spread throughout Spain, 
and was bruited throughout the world. The greatest enthusiasm 
prevailed among all classes in Spain to join it, and the high and 
the low were led to seek admission to the opportunity of realizing 
the golden dreams which had been awakened by the glowing 
accounts of Columbus and his companions of the new countries 
in the west. While on the first voyage men had to be impressed 
and forced into the service of a forlorn yet brilliant hope, now 
it was impossible to answer the numerous applicants seeking 



ON COLUMBUS. 23 1 

acceptance or permission to embark. Some were led by the 
specimens of Indian gold exhibited in the admiral's triumphant 
entry into Barcelona to go, in the hope of soon returning with 
boundless wealth from the transatlantic mines ; others would 
embark in the trade of Oriental spices, perfumes, pearls, and 
gems. The heroes of the. Moorish war sought new fields for 
military prowess in the vast Indian empires, and many others 
sought official position, consequence, and emolument in the gov- 
ernment of the Indies. Spanish hidalgos, cavaliers, and officers 
now pressed for permission to go to the new world along with 
laborers, mechanics, and tradesmen. To others the conquest 
and conversion of the heathens gave the new expedition the 
grandeur and chivalry of a new crusade. What glory might not 
be won on those distant shores by measuring strength, valor, 
and arms with the most famous cohorts of the Grand Khan ! 
Several personages of distinction joined the expedition. Among 
these one of the most prominent and gallant was Don Alonzo de 
Ojeda, a nobleman distinguished for his personal beauty, agility, 
strength, fearlessness and undaunted prowess, who in the new 
world was to add to the laurels already won in the old. 

There was another person of note in this second expedition, 
the good and learned friar, Antonio de Marchena, who, in the 
similarity of names and the confusion of data, has been singularly 
confounded by such writers as Navarrete, Humboldt, Irving, 
Tarducci, and De Lorgues, with that other noted personage in 
the history of Columbus and his discovery, Juan Perez de 
Marchena, the prior of the Convent of La Rabida.* But more 
modern and recent researches, aided by the publication of Las 
Casas's great work, have clearly shown that they were two 
different persons, the two friars de Marchena.f Deeply inter- 
ested as she was in every detail of this second expedition, Queen 
Isabella wrote to Columbus, on September 5th, recommending 
Tiim to rely not entirely on his own great knowledge, but to take 



* Navarrete, " Col, Dipl.," No. Ixxi. ; Humboldt, " Cosmos," ii., p. 255, note xiv. ; 
Tarducci's "Life of Columbus," Brownson's translation, vol. i., p. 255 ; De Lorgues' 
"Columbus," Barry's translation, p. 252. 

f Las Casas, " Hist. Ind.," lib. i., cap. xxix., xxxi. ; Harrisse, " Christophe 
Colomb," torn, i., pp. 341-72 ; tom. ii., pp. 227-231 ; Fiske's "Discovery of Amer- 
ica," vol. i., p. 412 ; Winsor's "Columbus," p. 259. 



232 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

with him the eminent astronomer, Fray Antonio de Marchena. 
This learned monk is the one of whom Columbus said that he 
was the only person who, from his first arrival in Spain, had 
always befriended him and never mocked at him. Of the learned 
men in Spain, Fray Antonio was probably the most accomplished 
astronomer, and he is supposed to have steadfastly upheld and 
supported Columbus from the beginning from scientific consid- 
erations, no less than from personal regard. 

Still another famous personage, whose name is connected with 
the second expedition of Columbus to the new world, one who 
acquired unbounded fame from the discovery of the Indies by 
the admiral, and, by an almost unaccountable stroke of fortune, 
won a distinction which was due only to Columbus — that of 
giving his name to the new World. This was Amerigo Ves- 
pucci, whose name as Latinized was Americus Vespucius. He 
did not, however, as erroneously stated by Count de Lorgues 
and Dr. Barry, accompany the second expedition ; his connec- 
tion with it consisted in assisting his employer, Juanoto Berardi, 
a Florentine merchant then settled in Seville, who took part in 
the business preparations and contracts for the outfit of the voy- 
age, and Americus was his clerk. He was then regarded as 
a man of arithmetical, cosmographical, and polite learning. 
Americus was at this time forty-two years of age, and it was 
during these busy days of preparation for the second voyage 
that Columbus saw for the first time and perhaps frequently the 
man, whose very name was destined to exert a potent influence- 
on the fortunes and fame of the great discoverer. 

Among the noted persons who sailed on this important expedi- 
tion should be mentioned Giacomo Colombo, the younger brother 
of the admiral, who now assumed the corresponding Spanisk 
name of Diego Colon, and who had remained with the father at 
Genoa until a summons from the successful discoverer of the 
Indies brought him to Spain ; also Pedro Margarite, a gentle- 
man from Aragon and favorite of King Ferdinand, whose name 
has not come down to us with honorable renown, as it might 
have done ; the celebrated Juan Ponce de Leon, the hero and 
namer of Florida ; Francisco de Las Casas, the father of the 
illustrious Bartolome de Las Casas, historian, bishop and philan- 
thropist, and the famous pilot, Juan de La Cosa, so noted for his 
maps and charts. It is no compliment to the above to name with 



ON COLUMBUS. 235 

them the notorious Roldan, the rebel, who afterward embittered 
the life and efforts of Columbus. 

While the number of persons who were to be permitted to join 
the expedition was limited to one thousand, so great was the 
pressure for admission and participation in the expected glories, 
profits, and renown to be reaped from it, that the Spanish sover- 
eigns 3nelded to the general importunity and increased the num- 
ber of the fortunate ones, as it seemed at the time, to twelve hun- 
dred. The officers, missionaries, and men of various occupa- 
tions in the pay of the crown amounted to five hundred ; the 
others, persons of every grade and class, and of every age and 
condition, amounted to seven hundred. Even then many had to 
endure the disappointment of refusal ; but at the last moment as 
many as three hundred more succeeded in surreptitiously getting 
on board the ships and secreting themselves until the fleet had 
sailed, thus increasing the entire number to fifteen hundred. 
Columbus, in his great zeal for the prestige and success of the 
important expedition, spared no effort and no expense to add to 
its efficiency and results. Thus the expenses of the preparations 
necessarily exceeded the estimates, and who could then estimate 
for so unexampled an enterprise ? Fonseca and Soria complained 
much at this, and hesitated, and even refused to pass the ad- 
miral's accounts. Thus commenced the first outward manifesta- 
tions of the jealousy and ill-will cherished by these officials 
against him. They went so far as to come into unpleasant con- 
flict with him, and on several occasions to treat him with dis- 
courtesy and rudeness. Repeated reprimands from Ferdinand 
and Isabella only served to suppress the outward exhibition of a 
hatred now more than ever secretly cherished. When it came 
to passing the personal accounts and requisitions of the admiral, 
their malice could not be disguised. They demurred to his req- 
uisitions for footmen and other domestics for his personal and 
immediate service, his household and retinue, pretending to re- 
gard these requisitions as superfluous, and alleging that he had 
at his service and command the \n'\\o\q. persomiel of the fleet. The 
sovereigns gravely reprimanded these officious placemen for 
their unworthy treatment of so eminent a person. Columbus, 
on his part, insisted now, as he had done in his negotiations with 
the sovereigns, upon the full measure of his terms and rights. 
Orders from Barcelona now settled the dispute by fixing his 



234 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

domestic retinue at ten squires afoot bearing swords,* and his 
other domestics at twenty ; and Fonseca was cautioned against 
interfering with the wishes or comforts of the admiral, or oppos- 
ing his requisitions. He and his subordinates obeyed, but these 
transactions only added to the rancor of the admiral's enemies, 
and it was reserved for Fonseca and his abettors to vent their 
malignant hatred against the man in various petty ways in the 
future prosecution of the enterprises in the new world. As long 
as he lived they contrived to throw impediments in his way, 
while pretending or not seeming to do so. 

Again, while the expedition was on the eve of sailing, the 
Spanish sovereigns received secret advices of preparations made 
in Portugal for the sailing of a ship, ostensibly to the African 
coast, but with concealed orders to sail westward, and circum- 
vent the prosecution of Spanish discoveries under Columbus. 
The latter now received the most urgent requests from the sov- 
ereigns not to delay the sailing of his fleet another hour. The 
expedition consisted of three large ships of heavy burden and 
fourteen caravels. The admiral's ship was the Gracious Mary, 
and in addition to and including some of the remarkable person- 
ages I have mentioned as going on the expedition, there were on 
board the admiral's ship, besides himself, Gil Garcia, alcalde- 
mayor ; Bernal Diaz de Pisa, lieutenant of the Comptroller-Gen- 
eral ; Sebastian da Olano, receiver of the crown taxes ; Dr. 
Chanca, the chief physician ; a number of Spanish hidalgos ; 
Melchior Maldonada, cousin of the cosmographer of that name ; 
two of the baptized Indians now returning to their homes, one 
of whom had for his godfather Diego Columbus, and was named 
after him Diego Colon, and Diego Columbus himself, the 
3^ounger brother of the admiral. At the moment of sailing 
the city of Cadiz and its beautiful harbor were alive with ex- 
citement, with bustle, immediate preparation, the hurrying to 
and fro of members of the expedition and their friends, and 
many were the sympathetic and heart-felt adieus then fervently 
exchanged. The scene was gay and joyous, and the old city and 
its harbor had never looked so brilliant, so active, so enchanting. 
There were seen the cavalier, the navigator, the adventurer and 



* Tarducci's " Life of Columbus," Brownson's translation, vol. i., p. 254 ; Navar- 
rete, " Col. Dipl ," vol. i., p. 225 ; Irving's " Life of Columbus," vol. i., p. 298. 



ON COLUMBUS. 235 

speculator, the sailor, the artisan, the husbandman, the pilot, 
and, last but not least, the zealous and venerable missionar}^ ; 
while others were seeking worldly honors or wealth, the last was 
intent on gaining souls for heaven, the imperishable treasures of 
immortality. 

In the midst of this scene of hurrying preparation and of ardent 
sensations, Columbus was the object of universal interest, admira- 
tion, and veneration. Every one pressed forward to see and 
honor the discoverer of continents. His lofty stature, his com- 
manding presence, and his noble and engaging expression of 
countenance attracted every eye, and made every tongue elo- 
quent in his praise. He was attended by his two sons, Diego 
and Fernando, who had come to spend the last moments with 
their illustrious parent, and to bid him farewell. The admiral 
had been for several days quite unwell in consequence of the 
great labors of mind and body which he had undergone in the 
preparations made for hastening the urgent voyage. But when 
a favorable wind decided the selection of the day for sailing, his 
mind rallied under the excitement of duty and hope, and he 
sailed with his fine fleet from the ancient and renowned port of 
Cadiz on the morning of September 2Sth, 1493. 



CHAPTER IX. 

" There is a traveler, sir ; knovvns men, 
Mariners, and has plough'd the sea so far 
Till both the polls have knock'd ; he has seen the sun 
Take coach, and can distinguish the color 
Of his horses, and their kinds." 

— Beaumont and Fletcher's "Scornful Lady." 

The crucial line had been drawn by Pope Alexander VL, by 
which the demarcation between the east and west was estab- 
lished. Spain and Portugal had separate fields assigned to them 
for discovering and taking possession of the unknown lands and 
waters of the earth's surface, and for extending the realms of 
Christendom. Columbus, on his second voyage, steered clear 
of the islands within the realms assigned to Portugal, and of all 
her possessions. The line of demarcation was his own discov- 
ery. It proved the solution of the question of peace or war. 
Making for the Canaries, he touched at the Grand Canary on 
October ist, and, departing the next day, he anchored at Gomera, 
where he took in wood and water, and procured, for stocking 
the new countries, calves, goats, and sheep, which he thought 
could be more easily acclimated there than animals taken from 
Spain. He also purchased eight hogs, which formed the parent 
stock for nearly all the abounding swine of the islands and of the 
new continent, and which now supply Europe and other parts of 
the earth with American pork. So also with the domestic fowls 
and the seeds of oranges, lemons, melons, bergamots, and various 
orchard seeds, all which were thus introduced by the discoverer 
of the new world himself. 

After sailing from Gomera, the admiral handed to the com- 
mander of each ship a sealed letter, to be opened only in case of 
separation, and by which they were instructed to steer for His- 
paniola and for the residence of Guacanagari. It is said that he 
purposely kept his exact course somewhat in doubt, in order to 
prevent the Portuguese from becoming acquainted with it. Be- 
calmed among the Canaries, it was not until October 13th that 



ON COLUMBUS. 237 

he could get under weigh with a favorable wind. He directed 
his course to the southwest with the view of reaching first the 
Caribbean Islands, of which he had received such strange accounts 
from his Hispaniola Indians. No seaweeds were encountered 
on the voyage, but the appearance of a swallow on one day and 
on others the prevalence of sudden showers of rain convinced 
the admiral that land was not far off. Toward the end of October 
a severe thunder-storm, which lasted four hours, greatly alarmed 
the sailors, but their confidence was restored at seeing the play 
of the wavering flames of lightning among the masts and rigging 
of the ships, which was regarded as a sign of good omen. They 
saw in them the apparition of St. Elmo, whom they would 
usually, and according to ancient marine traditions, salute with 
reverence, and whose appearance was not infrequently received 
by mariners with tears of joy. The admiral felt calmly confident 
of safely reaching his destination, because he had from the begin- 
ning of the voyage placed it under the protection of the pa- 
troness in whose honor he had named his ship, the Gracious 
Mary, and he had promised to give her name to islands he 
would discover. Such was his experience and good judgment 
as a sailor, that he announced his belief that land was near on 
Saturday, November 2d. On the following day the land ap- 
peared, and a hymn of thanksgiving, the " Salve Regina," was 
joyously chanted by all the crews. As the ships speeded on, one 
island after another came in sight. He named the first island 
Dominica, in honor of the Sunday on which it was discovered, 
and the second island he called Maria Galanta ; and here he 
landed, bearing the royal banner, and took possession for the 
Spanish sovereigns. The largest island of the group he called 
Guadaloupe, in honor of Our Lady of Guadaloupe, in Spain. 
Columbus, with his usual sagacity, had struck the very centre of 
the Caribbean Islands, as he had desired, and on landing at the 
island of Guadaloupe, which the natives called Turuguiera, and 
visiting the. cabins, which they had just abandoned on his ap- 
proach, he saw the evidences that the natives were cannibals. 
In the cabins were also found provisions, cotton spun and un- 
spun, hammocks, utensils of earthenware, bows and arrows and 
domesticated geese, and parrots of many-colored plumage. But 
the sight of human bones, the remnants of their shocking repasts, 
and human skulls, which were apparently used as vases for 



238 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

domestic purposes, greatly agitated the Spaniards. The natives 
fled on the approach of the visitors, who, having continued their 
course about two leagues and anchored in a convenient harbor, 
and having landed, saw a number of deserted villages on the 
shores, and finally succeeded in capturing a boy and several 
Avomen. From their captives they learned that the natives of 
this and two adjoining islands were in league against the others, 
and in warlike expeditions supplied themselves with human food 
by capturing and feasting upon their enemies. Not only did 
they kill and consume their captives, they even fattened them 
for their cannibal feasts. Their principal weapons were bows 
and arrows, the latter being pointed with poisoned shells or 
bones of fishes. 

At evening Diego Marque, captain of one of the caravels, and 
eight men, who had gone into the country, had not returned to 
their ship, and the admiral and his companions concluded that 
they had been killed and eaten by the natives. Next day scout- 
ing parties well armed were sent to scour the island in search of 
the missing Spaniards ; trumpets were sounded and guns dis- 
charged, but these guides did not bring back the wanderers. 
The scouting parties visited many towns, and had their feelings 
much disturbed by seeing human limbs suspended to the beams 
of houses, and they saw the suspended head of a young man still 
bleeding, portions of his body roasting before the fire, and other 
portions being boiled together with the flesh of parrots and geese. 
The cannibal warriors were absent on one of their inhuman ex- 
peditions, the women, who were expert archers and almost as 
masculine as the men, remaining at home to defend the country 
from invasion and the villages from plunder. Columbus allowed 
nothing to be taken which belonged to them. As the missing 
party had not been found or heard from, Alonzo de Ojeda was 
sent out in search of them with forty men, and, after peneti-ating 
far into the interior, returned without them. In the mean time, 
Columbus, who was anxious to reach Hispaniola, had caused the 
ships to take in wood and water, and was preparing to sail, 
though unwilling to do so without recovering the lost part of his 
crews. Eight days had elapsed, the fleet was about to sail, when 
at last, to the great joy of all, Diego Marque and his companions 
made their appearance at the shore, and were received on the 
fleet now ready to sail. They brought with them ten Indian 



ON COLUMBUS. 239 

women and boys. They had not throughout their wanderings 
met with a single man ; they had lost their way in the dark and 
trackless forest, had suffered with hunger, fatigue and fear, and 
returned to the fleet with haggard and exhausted aspects, and 
felt like men just rescued from a certain death. Columbus, 
while commiserating their sufferings, regarded their conduct as 
a serious breach of discipline, and from a sense of duty he put 
the captain under arrest, and stopped a part of the rations of the 
men. As the fleet was ready to weigh anchor when the wan- 
derers reappeared, no further time was lost, and the fleet sailed on 
November loth, steering to the northwest. 

While steering through this beautiful archipelago, the admiral 
discovered island after island. The first, a high and picturesque 
island, was wholly depopulated by the Caribs in their predatory 
expeditions in search of human food. This he called Montserrat, 
in honor of the celebrated sanctuary of the Virgin Mother of the 
hermitage of Montserrat in Spain. He wrote : " The Caribs 
have devoured all the inhabitants." The next island was named 
Santa Maria del Rotunda, and the third Santa Maria la Antigua, 
now known by the abbreviated name of Antigua. The third day 
brought the Spaniards in contact with the Caribs. Landing on 
an island which showed some signs of habitation and civilization, 
a party was sent on shore for wood and water, and to obtain 
information. They entered a village, which was deserted by the 
men, and secured several women and boys, who were captives 
from other islands. As the boat was returning, the men saw a 
canoe turn a point of the island and come in view of the ships ; 
it was occupied by four men and two women, all of whom were 
so amazed and so intently gazing at the ships that they did not 
observe the movement of the Spaniards' boat, which came in 
between them and the shore, until to their amazement their re- 
treat was cut off. As soon as they saw this they all seized their 
bows and arrows and furiously attacked the Spaniards, who 
covered themselves with their bucklers, but not until two of 
them had been wounded. The women fought as furiously as the 
men, handled the weapons with equal strength and skill, and one 
of them discharged an arrow with such force as to penetrate 
through and through a stout buckler. The Carib canoe was 
overturned by the boat of the Spaniards by running against it ; 
the men and women in the water were expert swimmers ; they 



240 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

discharged their arrows as well from the water as from the boat. 
They all escaped except one, and such was the ferocity of this 
savage, that even when bound in chains and in the hands of the 
Spaniards he was as fierce and defiant as ever. The natives 
used poisoned arrows, and one of the Spaniards died a few days 
afterward from a poisoned arrow with which he had been 
wounded by one of the Carib women. The Carib prisoner also 
died of a wound he received in the struggle with the Spaniards. 
Continuing his course, the admiral discovered many more 
islands. To one he gave the name of Holy Cross ; to another, 
St. John Baptist ; and to another, St. Ursula ; and a group of 
islands he named the Eleven Thousand Virgins, in honor of those 
who were the companions of St. Ursula in martyrdom, according 
to one of the most interesting traditions of the Middle Ages. 
Some of these islands were well inhabited by people, who lived in 
neat cottages, showed ingenuity in their houses and gardens, and 
defended themselves from the Caribsby the use of bows and arrows 
and the war club. To this island had fled the entire remaining 
population of the other islands ravaged by the Caribs, and here 
they were all united under one cacique. The admiral wrote 
most minute and accurate accounts of these cannibals, which 
deeply interested the scholars of Europe. The learned had 
doubted the stories of human flesh-eaters, which they regarded 
as myths of former times, but now the accounts of the Lestrigo- 
nians and of Polyphemus had become authenticated by the de- 
scription given by Columbus of the Caribs in the fifteenth century, 
and their repasts on human flesh. The existence of this fierce 
tribe, in the midst of the other and neighboring islands inhabited 
by gentle, peaceful, and un warlike people, was a singular histori- 
cal, social, and ethnological fact. While prejudice and fear 
have, no doubt, tended to exaggerate their cruel ferocity and 
shocking love for human flesh for their food, there can be no 
question of their existence as a distinct tribe and of their being 
cannibals, of their warlike habits and merciless inroads upon 
their weaker and more peaceful neighbors. Inquiries by the 
learned have led to the general adoption of the view that they 
were a colony of the warlike people inhabiting the deep valleys 
of the Appalachian Mountains ; that they had fought their way 
across the northern continent until they reached the end of the 
Florida peninsula, and thence made their way, from island to 



ON COLUMBUS. 24I 

island, until they had founded their permanent home in the group 
of islands of which Guadaloupe was the centre. Traces of this 
fierce tribe are found in the South American Continent and 
through its interior, and even as far as the southern ocean, for 
among the aborigines of Brazil were found Indians calling them- 
selves Caribs. Wherever their descendants have thus been 
traced they formed a contrast with the other populations or 
tribes by their greater strength, endurance, and fearlessness.* 

The admiral now took leave of his fierce acquaintances, the 
Caribs, and with a sagacity and memory for which he was re- 
markable, he steered almost directly for Hispaniola, though he 
had never traversed this route before, and none of his former 
-companions recognized the island when his superior discernment 
■confidently pointed it out to them. On November 22d the fleet 
arrived off the eastern extremity of Hispaniola, the Hayti of the 
natives, and while the others were eager to land after a long 
voyage and enjoy the delights of this favored land, as described 
to them by those who had accompanied the admiral on the first 
voyage, the latter was painfully anxious to revisit the colony and 
garrison of La Navidad and learn the results of the effort to en- 
graft European civilization on the new world. Having had occa- 
sion to send a party ashore to bury a young Biscayan, who had 
died on board one of the ships from a wound received in the 
conflict with the Caribs, the news of the arrival of the great fleet 
of ships from the clouds was soon spread among the inhabitants, 
and many visited the fleet with invitations to the admiral and his 
companions to land, and with promises of much gold. One of 
the converted Indians who had been brought back from Spain 
was liberated by the admiral, after being handsomely dressed in 
fine clothes and well provided with presents, in the hope that his 
accounts would predispose the natives favorably. But this 
Indian is supposed to have been murdered by his countrymen, 
-envious of his wealth in raiment, for no tidings were afterward 
received of him. There still remained on board another con- 
verted Indian, the godson and namesake of Diego Columbus, 
who continued to the end true to his new faith and to his new 
friends. The admiral declined all invitations to visit this part of 



* Irving's "Life of Columbus," vol. i., p. 318; "Hist. Nat. des lies Antilles,' 
Hochefort ; Barry's De Lorgues' " Columbus," p. 267. 



242 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

the island, and hastened on toward La Navidad. On November 
25th he anchored off Monte Christi, and was observant of the 
country in hopes of finding a more suitable place for a permanent 
settlement. Here, while some of the sailors were wandering 
along the shore, they descried the dead bodies of a man and boy, 
so far decomposed as to baffle all conjecture as to whether thej^ 
were Indians or Spaniards ; but the man had a cord of Spanish 
grass around his neck, and his arms were tied to a stake in the 
form of a cross. This discovery produced a deep gloom in the 
mind of Columbus and of all his followers, and sad apprehen- 
sions as to the fate of the garrison of La Navidad. On the fol- 
lowing day a party of Spaniards visited the shore, and to their 
dismay they found, in a spot some distance from the place where 
they had seen the dead bodies the day before, two other dead 
bodies, and now there was no doubt as to their being Spaniards, 
for one of them had a long beard. The dread apprehensions 
thus awakened were not wholly allayed by the confidence and 
frankness with which the natives visited the ships, and yet the 
admiral could but hope that his colony might yet be found in 
safety and health. 

The admiral and his fleet reached the harbor of La Navidad 
on the evening of November 27th, and, as it was too late to land, 
he anchored a league from the shore ; but he could not wait till. 
morning to ascertain the fate of his colonists. He accordingly 
had two cannons fired, but the only response was their own echo 
along the shore ; no light appeared on land to show there was 
life in the colony, no shout of welcome greeted their ears ; silence 
and darkness reigned where the first European colony had been 
planted. At midnight an Indian canoe approached the admiral's 
ship, and the occupants, calling out, asked to see him. Seeing 
and recognizing him, they entered his ship. One of the Indians 
was a cousin of the friendly cacique, Guacanagari ; and, on being 
questioned, the Indians told the admiral that some of the Span- 
iards had been carried off by disease, others had fallen victims to 
others in a quarrel among themselves, and others had gone into 
the country and taken Indian wives ; that Guacanagari had been 
attacked by Caonabo, the savage chief of Cibao, had been 
wounded and defeated in the engagement, his village was burned, 
and the good cacique lay wounded in a neighboring hamlet. As 
he could not come in person to welcome the admiral, he had 



ON COLUMBUS. 243 

sent these envoys. Sad as the news was, the admiral was re- 
lieved by the thought that the garrison had not been murdered 
by the natives, and he hoped soon to recall those who had gone 
into the country. His kindly nature led him to take the most 
favorable view of the situation, and all the officers and sailors 
enjoyed a feeling of relief and a ray of hope. But on the follow- 
ing day Guacanagari did not come to the admiral, as he had 
promised by his deputies, and instead of seeing the harbor and 
the shores swarming with Indians, eager to welcome him and to 
give and receive presents, the scene was one vast wilderness, 
buried in silence and gloom. After a day's weary delay and 
sad disappointment, Columbus sent a boat's crew on shore to 
look for the Spaniards and the garrison ; but alas ! these returned 
with dejected looks that told the sad story before they had 
spoken a word. They found the fortress a ruin, with its pali- 
sades beaten down, and it had evidently been sacked and burned. 
Chests broken open, decaying food and shreds of tattered gar- 
ments were all that remained. Neither Spaniard nor Indian was 
there, but they saw at a distance one or two natives watching 
them from the woods, and disappearing on perceiving that the}' 
were seen. With thoughts most gloomy and sad the admiral 
went ashore next day in person, and having gone directly to the 
site of the fort, not only saw the desolation and ruin of all, but 
also visited the site of the burned village of Guacanagari. Both 
Spaniards and Indian allies had met with one sad and similar 
fate. A slight relief was experienced in the thought and hope 
that Guacanagari had not proved a traitor. 

Recalling his instructions to Arana, he ordered his men to 
search for the spots in which he might have buried the gold he 
gathered, and to look into the wells to see if it was hidden there. 
He went in his boats to explore the coasts and neighboring 
country, but all he found was a deserted village containing such 
articles as stockings, European cloth, a new Moorish robe, and 
other articles that the Spaniards could not be supposed to have 
willingly parted with. The treasure was not found in pit or 
well, but they discovered the graves of eleven Spaniards, so 
long buried that the grass had grown over them. A few Indians 
timidly showed themselves. By finally assuring them they be- 
came confidential and communicative, and Columbus learned 
gradually from them the appalling story of the awful fate which 



244 ^LD AND NEW LIGHTS 

had destroyed, in its first effort, the transplanting of the Euro- 
pean race and its civihzation to the new world. 

Had the garrison of European intruders been overpowered by 
the swarming hordes of natives and destroyed by brute force or 
vastly preponderating numbers, or had their Indian friend and 
ally, Guacanagari, turned traitor and betrayed to their destruc- 
tion those to whom he pledged his protection and offered his 
hospitality, the case would not have been so discouraging. 
Time, repeated efforts, and the certainty of European success 
and power in the end, would have reassured the minds and 
hearts of the admiral, of the Spanish sovereigns, of the Christian 
Church and missionaries of the faith, and of the great and good 
and learned friends of human progress, the leading men of the 
times. But that this first footprint of European society should 
have been obliterated by the baseness and sordidness of Euro- 
pean crimes and vices ; that this first germ of Christianity, trans- 
planted to the virgin soil of the Western Hemisphere, should 
have perished by the misdeeds of the very Christians that were 
its heralds, were facts most humiliating, at once to our civiliza- 
tion and to our religion. In history and in all human efforts re- 
sults are greatly dependent upon the agents selected to accom- 
plish them. Withering was the contrast between the virtues, 
wisdom, and patriotism of Columbus, of the Spanish Queen, and 
of the Christian scholars and apostles of Europe, on the one 
hand, and the vices, the recklessness, and the sordid avarice of 
the first European colonists, who were selected to found the 
Christian faith and Caucasian civilization among the heathen and 
savage nations of the western world. With the exception of 
Arana, their commander, the}^ were mostly men of the lowest 
grades of societ}-, and were steeped in the worst vices and pas- 
sions of the most degraded classes of human society, without 
possessing the virtues which are common to all. 

During the admiral's visit to the desolated site of the ruined 
fort other Indians gradually came thither, and among them came 
a brother of Guacanagari, escorted with guards, who saluted 
Columbus in Spanish, and related to him the same distressing 
and humiliating history he had already learned from the natives ; 
and yet more forcibly from the desolation he saw around him 
than from the decaying corpses of the Spaniards exhumed, he 



ON COLUMBUS. 245 

learned the history of this sad result. Oviedo* relates in detail 
this story, at once a disgrace to civilization and a betrayal of re- 
ligion. Nothing had been left undone or unspoken by Colum- 
bus, when he confided the cause of mankind in its advance from 
the Eastern to the Western Continent, that might secure its 
safety and its success. The men he selected for this all-impor- 
tant task were the best his limited resources would afford ; but, 
with the exception of Don Diego de Aranaand one or two others, 
they proved unfit for the noble work they undertook, and faith- 
less to the exalted mission they had to perform. His wise and 
far-seeing counsels and admonitions to these men vanished from 
their minds with the disappearance of his ship on its homeward 
course from their sight. Ordinary regard for their own safety, 
and for the restraints which their position as a handful of 
strangers in a far distant world and surrounded by strange and 
heathen tribes of savages imposed upon them, should have been 
sufficient to guide them in paths of order, discipline, self-restraint, 
and honor. That they should have yielded, almost immediately, 
to every excess in their conduct toward the natives, and to the 
worst impulses in their dealings and intercourse with each other, 
are facts which illustrate the depths of depravity to which human 
nature may sink. While a portion of the Spanish garrison avari- 
ciously sought to despoil the natives of every piece of gold they 
possessed, even the ornaments attached to their persons, by the 
most rapacious and unjust means, or to wrest fiom them every- 
thing of value ; others, to whom Guacanagari had already 
allowed two or three female companions, yielded to such gross 
sensuality as to seduce the wives and daughters of the natives. 
They quarrelled over the dishonest booty they had wrested from 
the Indians, as well as in their struggles for the companionship 
of the Indian women. Avarice and lust were the characteristic 
vices exhibited by the men, whom the Indians received with 
veneration as guests from heaven. The authority of Don Diego 
de Arana was set at defiance. The two lieutenants whom 
Columbus had named to Arana to succeed him in the command, 
in case of his death, showed their unfitness by their insubordina- 
tion to their own commander, and went so far as to assert in 



* " Hist. Ind.," lib. ii., cap. 12 ; Barry's De Lorgues' "Columbus," p. 270 ; Irv- 
ing's " Life of Christopher Columbus," vol. i., p. 326. 



246 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

themselves an authority equal or superior to his. Finally, having 
killed a man named Jacomo in their broils and struggles for 
command, and not having succeeded in supplanting Arana, they 
revolted with nine others, and marching forth with these and 
with a number of their women, they wended their way to the 
famed regions of the notorious Caonabo, where rumor had located 
unbounded treasures of gold. But Caonabo, a prince of Carib- 
bean origin and birth, himself an intruder and conqueror in this 
once peaceful island, had no sooner secured these formidable 
visitors within his pov/er, than he slaughtered them all with sav- 
age ferocity. Other revolting parties deserted the fortress and 
went in small bands to different parts of the island in search of 
gold. And again there were other parties of three or four who 
deserted the garrison and marched ?.nd marauded through the 
country, forcing themselves upon the Indians, consuming their 
provisions, carrying off their wives and daughters, and cruelly 
treating the men with wantonness and dishonor. The protection 
of the good Guacanagari scarcely sufficed to protect the Span- 
iards from native vengeance in their crimes and vices. 

The brave and loyal Arana remained, like a true soldier, at his 
fortress, true to his honor, to his country and his race, and loyal 
to his relative Columbus, the husband of Beatrix Enriquez de 
Arana. But there were only ten Spaniards with him, consti- 
tuting the garrison. The others were quartered in houses out- 
side the fort. Confiding in the protection of Guacanagari and 
the friendship of his subjects, in whose dominions the fortress 
stood, the Spaniards at the fort relaxed their discipline by omit- 
ting to keep up a strict guard at night, little supposing that a 
more distant enemy would take advantage of their confidence. 
The wily and fierce Caonabo had no sooner massacred the Span- 
iards who had entered his own dominions, than he conceived a 
plan for slaughtering the remainder of the Spaniards in the fort. 
He ascertained that no guard was kept at the post. It was at 
the dead of night that this savage chieftain, at the head of his 
warriors, rushed with savage yells and imprecations upon the 
garrison and gained possession of the fftrt before the Spaniards 
could recover from sleep or defend themselves. The houses 
outside, in which other Spaniards were living, were surrounded 
and set on fire. All the Spaniards were slaughtered in cold 
blood, except eight, who escaped, and rushing into the water, 



ON COLUMBUS. 247 

were drowned. This cruel massacre was not alone the work of 
Caonabo and his tribe ; other caciques and their tribes, who had 
suffered from the pillage and outrages of the Spaniards, joined 
to make up a numerous army bent upon revenge. The faithful 
Guacanagari and his subjects rushed to the defence of their 
friends and allies, but his unwarlike followers could not stand 
up against the fierce attacks of Caonabo's warriors ; they were 
badly defeated and dispersed ; Guacanagari was wounded by a 
stone thrown by the hand of Caonabo ; his village was burned, 
and he was forced to seek shelter and concealment in the woods. 

It was thus that the Spaniards by their misconduct and vices 
brought not only ruin upon themselves, but also disaster and 
destruction to their innocent native allies. The prestige of civil- 
ized man was lost in the eyes of the savage ; the cause of Chris- 
tianity was lowered by the crimes of Christians themselves below 
the level of paganism ; the civilization of the Caucasian suffered 
in comparison with primitive and heathen barbarism. 

While Christopher Columbus, that explorer and discoverer of 
continents, that herald of civilization, that Christian gentleman, 
had done all that his wonderful foresight could do to prevent 
the calamities he now realized, his sanguine nature drew new 
energy from disaster. His thoughts now were bent on the selec- 
tion of another and more suitable spot for the European settle- 
ment, and a commission was appointed, under the presidency of 
Melchior Maldonado, to explore the country for this purpose. 
While coasting to the eastward on this duty, Maldonado encoun- 
tered a canoe containing two Indians on their way to visit the 
caravel. One of these Indians was recognized as the brother of 
Guacanagari, who, on boarding the ship, entreated the captain 
to visit the cacique, who was then confined at the village, suffer- 
ing from his wound. On compl3nng with this request Maldonado 
found the cacique resting in his hammock, and attended by seven 
women, in a village of about fifty houses. Guacanagari mani- 
fested his sorrow at not being able to visit the admiral, related 
how the Spaniards had been massacred by Caonabo and other 
hostile caciques, how the fortress and houses of the Spaniards 
had been burned, and how he and his subjects had suffered in 
their efforts to succor the Christians. Believing the accounts of 
the cacique, the Spaniards carried his invitation to the admiral 
to visit him, and they were accompanied on their return by 



248 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

the brother of Guacanagari, who was sent to urge its accept- 
ance. 

The admiral accepted the invitation of the cacique. On the 
following day he landed in state, accompanied by his staff officers 
and the seventeen captains of the caravels, all dressed in their 
richest attire and glittering with arms and armor. Guacanagari 
received this august and brilliant party with great emotion, and 
in his hammock extended to them every honor and hospitality. 
He again related in detail the recent disasters, not omitting the 
part he and his subjects had taken in defence of the Spaniards, 
pointing to the destruction of his own residence and the wounds 
received by himself and many of his followers as evidences of 
their sincerity. Columbus was moved by the narrative and by 
the tears of the prince, and gave full faith to his words. He 
requested Dr. Chanca and the skilful surgeon of the expedition, 
to examine and treat the cacique's wound ; the latter readily 
submitted his leg to examination, and while the doctors could 
discover no contusion or bruise, even on a second examination 
in the open light, the cacique expressed a great sense of pain, 
and shrank with suffering when the injured part was handled. 
Columbus gave generous presents to the prince and his attend- 
ants, and the latter was munificent, according to his means, 
and gave in return eight hundred beads of the ciba stone, which 
were esteemed of great value, one hundred beads of gold, and 
three small calabashes of gold dust. With royal refinement he 
regarded his generosity as greatly outdone by the admiral's 
presents of glass beads, hawks' bells, knives, pins, needles, small 
mirrors, and copper ornaments. The cacique expressed great 
joy at the admiral's announcement of his intention to settle in 
his vicinity, though he informed the latter that the spot was. 
unhealthy. Columbus addressed the prince in zealous appeals 
that he would accept the Christian faith, and requested him to 
receive and wear around his neck a medal of the Virgin Mother 
imtil he should be baptized. The cacique was anxious to do 
whatever the admiral requested, but he was not prepared to 
receive the faith which had been so dishonored by those wh» 
had professed it, and if the medal was an emblem of the religion 
which did not restrain the gross licentiousness of the garrison, 
he shrank from wearing it. Even after the kind words of the 
admiral and the friendship he bore him had induced him to wear 



ON COLUMBUS. 249 

the medal, the king seemed uneasy with this token of the religion 
professed by the garrison. 

Companions of Columbus, who had not witnessed the un- 
bounded kindness and princely bearing of Guacanagari at the 
first visit of the Europeans to his shore, now distrusted the sin- 
cerity of the chief and the truthfulness of his statements about the 
recent disasters. Father Boil, the spiritual superior or vicar 
apostolic, united with these, and he was convinced of the 
heathen's bad faith when he saw the bandage removed from his 
leg showing no exterior appearance of a wound, and more 
especially when he saw his reluctance to receive the blessed medal. 
He accordingly urged the admiral to arrest and deal with him 
in the most summar}'' manner ; but the milder nature of Colum- 
bus led him to do justice to his friend, to wait for undoubted 
proofs of his treachery, and even then to act with moderation, 
and with a desire to maintain as long as possible peaceful rela- 
tions with the natives. Most of the colonists sustained the wiser 
and humane view of Columbus toward the native chief, but the 
over-zealous vicar apostolic and some others not only differed 
from him, but even entertained resentment at the just decision 
of the admiral. 

The friendly chief accompanied the admiral to his shipS not- 
withstanding his lameness, and on boarding the flag-ship, although 
he had seen the caravel on the first voyage, he was exceedingly 
astonished at all he saw, especially at the numerous and power- 
ful fleet and its equipment, at the great ship of the admiral, at 
the goods and implements brought out, at the cattle, asses, 
sheep, swine, and goats, and, more than all, at the Andalusian 
horses. His amazement was unbounded. 

But the tender-hearted chief was not wholly engrossed with 
his celestial visitors, but was also deeply interested in some of 
the passengers, especially in the ten female native women, whom 
the ships' crews had rescued from the Caribs, and whom he saw 
on the Gracious Mary. But his sensitive feelings in their regard 
became immediately centred in one of their number, a young 
and handsome female, who had already been named by the 
Spaniards Donna Catalina, who was lofty and queenly in her 
appearance and bearing. The susceptible cacique was seen to 
speak to her with special interest and with marked expressions, 
and, though their dialects were different, a new-born sentiment. 



250 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

mutual and effective, made them perfectly comprehend each 
other. It was thus that Guacanagari and Donna Catalina, in 
the presence of all and without being suspected by any, entered 
into an engagement with each other, and they would certainly 
meet again. The admiral entertained the king at collation, and 
mutual interchanges of friendship were made. The intelligent 
native, while realizing the ever-true and unchanging cordiality 
of Columbus, with native keenness and observation could not 
but observe that Father Boil and others exhibited by their cold 
reserve a certain lack of confidence in him. It was this fact, no 
doubt, that caused him to request to be sent ashore before sun- 
set. On the following day large numbers of natives were seen 
along the shore. A messenger came from the cacique to inquire 
when the fleet would sail, and was informed that it would the 
following day. The brother of the cacique visited the Gracious 
Mary, and while on board, under the pretext of bartering some 
gold, he was seen to avoid most studiously the presence of the 
interpreter, Diego Colon ; but in his absence he spoke to the 
Indian women, and especially to Donna Catalina, and to the 
latter he delivered a message from his brother, the amorous 
cacique. The plot soon matured. At midnight a beacon light 
on shore gave love's signal to the captives. Catalina conveyed 
the intelligence to her companions, and the ten Indian women, 
following her example and leadership, noiselessly let themselves 
down into the sea by the side of the vessel, and all swam bravely 
for the shore, a distance of three miles. But their escape, not- 
withstanding it was managed so quietly, was detected by the 
watch, the alarm was given, the boats were let down, and imme- 
diate chase was given. The fugitives had already gained some 
distance ; they all reached the shore before the boats, and though 
four were recaptured, the comely and high-spirited Catalina and 
four of her companions succeeded in effecting their escape. At 
the dawn of day Columbus sent to demand the return of the 
fugitives from Guacanagari, but when reached the late royal resi- 
dence was silent and deserted ; the cacique and all his subjects 
had departed to unknown parts, carrying with them all their 
effects and properties, together with the stately female beauty 
and her four companions in flight. This singular occurrence 
seemed to confirm the suspicions of Father Boil and the others 
as to the disloyalty of Guacanagari, and it was the prevailing 



ON COLUMBUS. - 251 

opinion of the Spaniards now that it was he who had destro3'ed 
the fort and massacred the garrison, and that he was at heart 
and in secret deed a traitor and deceiver. The admiral, how- 
ever, who felt the burden of responsibility for the expeditions 
and for the future relations of the two races, and who saw more 
deeply into the importance of every event in these early stages 
of intercourse between the two hemispheres, and who was full 
of human kindness, refused to credit the charge or to consent to 
a rupture of the friendly relations existing between his country- 
men and their nearest neighbors. Upon every principle of 
natural justice it must be admitted that the conduct of this chief 
and his people, though somewhat irregular on this last occasion, 
contrasted favorably, even up to this time, with that of the 
Spaniards, with the exception of Columbus himself and a few 
others who participated in his more moderate counsels. The 
true principles of statesmanship and administration would cer- 
tainly prefer a postponement of any rupture with the natives as 
long as possible. 

The topographical commission sent out under Melchior Mal- 
donado had not only proceeded to the eastward farther than any 
Spaniards had done, but they also obtained from the Indians of 
other tribes, which they had encountered, accounts confirmatory 
of the statements of Guacanagari and his subjects, and excul- 
pating that prince from the charge of having destroyed the for- 
tress and garrison. All accounts pointed out Caonabo as the 
author of the disaster. Convinced that a change of the site for 
the proposed settlement, on the score of health and for many 
other reasons, was necessary, the admiral caused all the ships to 
sail on December 7th, with the intention of seeking out the port 
of La Plata ; but after they had proceeded about ten leagues 
east of Monte Christi they entered a spacious harbor, commanded 
by a point of land bounded on one side by rocks and protected 
on the other side by an impenetrable forest, and adjudged by 
Dr. Chanca and by the general opinion as the best place for the 
settlement. It was thought that Providence had sent them the 
recent bad weather, which induced them to enter this favored 
harbor at first for safety, and now as their permanent home. To 
an excellent harbor and a choice spot for a fort was added the 
important circumstance that the climate was delightful and the 
soil inexhaustibly fertile. The admiral had scarcely given the 



252 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

word of command when man and beast rejoiced in being released 
from the co'nfinement of the ships, and in the enjoyment of the 
deno:hts of the woods, the verdure of the fields, the refreshino- 
water of the springs, and they felt an inexpressible pleasure in 
the perennial springtime, the songs of birds, the fragrance of 
flowers, the freshness of the gi'ass, and the delights of fruits and 
fountains. 

The scene presented now was most active, picturesque, and 
inspiring. The crews, artificers, and laborers were landed, and 
these laboriously assisted in landing the provisions, guns, am- 
munition, implements, cattle, and live stock of every kind. The 
animals themselves, so long confined in the vessels, seemed to 
take delight in the refreshing change from the prison life of the 
ships to that enchanting and open region. Buildings were 
immediately erected to receive the property of the Spaniards, 
and an encampment was established on the side of a plain and 
near a beautiful sheet of fresh water. Such was the foundation 
of the city of Isabella, the first permanent settlement of Euro- 
peans in the new world. 

The three public buildings — the church, the storehouse, and 
the admiral's residence — were constructed of stone, while all the 
other houses were built of wood. As every man aspired to the 
possession of a house for himself, the greatest activity and enthu- 
siasm were manifested by all in hastening the erection of the 
three stone houses, and each then was soon building for himself 
a private residence. Primitive in style and construction, how- 
ever, were these structures. Such energy was exerted as to 
secure the completion of the church and the celebration of solemn 
high mass therein by January 6th, which was the anniversary of 
the entrance of the Spanish sovereigns into Granada. This im- 
posing and significant ceremony was performed with all possible 
pomp and grandeur, under the circumstances, by Father Boil, 
the vicar apostolic, assisted by Father Antonio de Marchena and 
the twelve religious monks who had come out with the expedi- 
tion. The new city of Isabella was regularly planned and laid 
out in projected squares and streets, after the usual style of Span- 
ish towns. There were near the place a large river and a smaller 
one, which presented several sites favorable for mills, and on the 
banks of one of the rivers was an Indian village. So rich was. 
the soil and so genial the chmate that in January the admiral 



f 



ON COLUMBUS. 253 

was presented with ripe ears of corn from seeds sown in the 
December previous. This certainly seemed like an earthly para- 
dise. To add inestimably to its advantages, it was related by the 
Indians of the neighboring village that at no great distance in 
the interior lay the famous gold-bearing mountains of Cibao, and 
the harbor of Isabella, as the admiral thought, would become 
the outlet for those boundless treasures. 

But, alas ! a reaction was at hand. The long confinement on 
shipboard, the rations of salted meat and fish and mouldy biscuit, 
had impaired the health of many unaccustomed to the sea, and 
now the fatigues of building up the new city and the effects of 
the new climate, subject to rapid successions of hot and humid 
weather, completed their prostration, and many fell ill of ravag- 
ing fevers. Disappointments soon followed, for the expectations 
of vast and sudden wealth had been the chief inducement with 
many to join in the expedition ; and now it was discovered that 
the golden regions of Cipango and Cathay were not at their feet, 
and treasures were not acquired without labor or care. Instead 
of a region of Oriental luxury they found themselves within a 
limited area of wilderness, surrounded by impassable forests ; 
and instead of a brilliant career of noble adventure and capti- 
vating exploits amid powerful and wealthy heathen nations, they 
had to struggle with the primeval wilderness, overcome unparal- 
leled obstacles, and labor, in an enervating climate, for a bare 
subsistence. Sickness and disease, aggravated by mental care 
and disappointment, now settled like a pall over the infant 
colony. 

Columbus suffered in common with his followers from the pre- 
vailing fever ; but his sufferings of body and mind were greatly 
intensified and increased by the personal and individual sur- 
roundings, responsibilities, and duties of the man. At the time 
of embarkation at Cadiz, his health was so bad that he could not 
attend in person to the selection or inspection of the provisions, 
animals, and munitions of war procured and shipped for the 
colony by the comptroller-general and the administration of the 
marine. On landing everything at Isabella it was found that the 
greater part of the provisions were damaged or of inferior qual- 
ity, the wine had leaked from badly bound casks, the medicines 
fell short of the quantity ordered by the chief physician, the 
magnificent Andalusian chargers, which the admiral had re- 



254 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

viewed at Seville, had been replaced by inferior animals, and in 
every department of preparation the colony had suffered by the 
fraud, corruption, and peculation of placemen and office-holders 
at home. The history of the world is not wanting in such 
features. The nineteenth century is not the first to indulge in 
such official misconduct. The politicians and office-holders of 
our times have had their instruction in the history of every 
nation and of every century since cities and States and govern- 
ments were founded by mankind ; but where are the lessons 
which history should teach ? 

Added to these causes of the admiral's illness should be men- 
tioned the difficulties and engrossing cares of his great undertak- 
ing, his great responsibilities, which were not limited to his crews, 
or to the natives, or to his country and his sovereigns, but extended 
to the interest which all mankind had in the great results of his 
splendid enterprise. The labors growing out of his extensive 
command, his loss of rest, his watchings, his sorrows at the fate 
of his garrison, his uncertainties as to the relations he might 
maintain with the aborigines, the mixed and unreliable character 
of the materials composing his followers, his recent cares and 
labors in founding and building the new city of Isabella, the cir- 
cumspection, study, and forethought required in establishing and 
conducting his future government under such unprecedented 
circumstances — all contributed to bring upon him mental and 
physical exhaustion. His illness confined him to his bed for 
some weeks ; but from his sick couch, with characteristic clear- 
ness of mind and energy of character, he governed and managed 
his new colony and fleet, and he directed all things with vigor, 
promptness, and success. The frauds of the bureau at Seville 
made his task more appalling, and the colony suffered from the 
beginning by its misdeeds. Yet, such was the energy of this 
man, and such the zeal with which he inspired others, that by 
the end of January a large number of houses had been erected 
and completed, and the new city was encircled by a stone wall.* 

The city having been built and the goods and effects brought 
out, landed, and stored, the admiral knew that some report Avas 
expected from him and the garrison by his sovereigns. The 



* Barry's De Lorgues' " Columbus,*' pp. 278, 280 ; " Hist, del Almirante," cap. 50 ; 
Irving's " Columbus," vol. i., p. 341 ; Peter Martyr, decad. i., lib. ii., etc. 



ON COLUMBUS. 255 

gold and valuables which it was expected the garrison would 
have collected he could not send, but in their stead must be 
despatched the appalling accounts of disaster, ruin, and death. 
Before sending the fleet on the homeward voyage with the sad 
tidings of the ruin of La Navidad and the destruction of the 
colony, with his usual fruitfulness of expedient he sent an ex- 
pedition under Alonzo de Ojeda into the interior of the island, 
to visit and explore the country of Caonabo, whose name, sig- 
nifying " the lord of the golden house," gave promise of rich 
returns of the precious metal, and hopes for a valuable return 
cargo to the Spanish sovereigns for their great outlay. The 
very tidings of the discovery of a country so rich in precious 
metals would of itself make some compensation for the disasters 
and disappointments of the past, Ojeda rejoiced at this oppor- 
tunity for exercising his prowess and displaying his courage. 
Accompanied by a small but selected and gallant command, in- 
cluding several high-spirited cavaliers scarcely inferior in daring 
and love of adventure to himself, he marched out of the city of 
Isabella in the early part of January, 1494, and proceeded south- 
ward toward the rich and storied Cibao. By several days of 
arduous marching, climbing lofty and rocky mountains, fording 
rivers, and keeping up an untiring struggle with natural ob- 
stacles, they penetrated a region of indescribable beauty, gran- 
deur, and richness, where they were received with unbounded 
hospitality by the natives, who were peaceful and friendly. 
Caonabo, the fierce and warlike king of the country, was absent 
in some other part of his dominions, and no one appeared to dis- 
pute the Spanish progress. Though the natives were naked, 
lived in simplicity and frugality, had no large or wealthy cities, 
still the Spaniards saw with delight evidences of the precious 
metal in the sands of gold in the mountain streams, large pieces, 
of gold ore in the beds of the torrents, and stones richly streaked 
with gold. The natives gave these treasures freely to the Span- 
iards. Ojeda himself is said to have found in one of the brooks 
a single piece of gold weighing nine ounces, which was seen by 
Peter Martyr before it was sent to Spain. The expedition re- 
turned to Isabella with the most enthusiastic accounts of the 
country, and especially of the mineral treasures of Cibao. 
Columbus was convinced that a development of the mines of this 
favored region would bring ample returns of the precious metals 



256 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

to satisfy the expectations of his countrymen and of his sover- 
eigns. He wrote a full account of the discovery of this rich 
countr}^ in the interior to Spain, and sent back the fleet of twelve 
vessels under the command of Antonio de Torres, who sailed in 
the admiral's ship, the Gracious Mary, on February 2d, together 
with rich specimens of the gold brought from Cibao, fruits and 
plants of the country, and the men, women, and children he had 
captured from the Caribbean Islands. He wrote a letter to the 
sovereigns, in which he described in enthusiastic terms the rich 
mineral regions of Cibao, gave the particulars of the expedition 
of Ojeda, whom he highly commended, and whose companion, 
Gorvalan, returned to Spain in the fleet, and he commended to 
the favor of the sovereigns a number of his followers, among 
whom were Pedro Margarite and Juan Aguado, who were also 
to return in the fleet, from both of whom he ever afterward re- 
ceived the basest and most disheartening ingratitude. He also 
requested fresh supplies from Spain, as the crops would not 
mature in time to afford sustenance to the colony, and as the 
provisions brought out from Spain were inferior or spoiled, and 
the wine had leaked from the casks on board the ships. The 
colonists were suffering for proper diet. He also requested a 
supply of other articles of pressing necessity, particularly such 
as clothing, medicines, and arms. Great stress was laid on the 
importance of sending horses, both for the military service and 
the government works, and mention was made of the wonderful 
effect of these animals in overawing the natives. More workmen 
and mechanics were requested to be sent out, as well as miners 
and others skilled in handling the ore of the precious metals. 

In sending the men, women, and children that had been taken 
from the Caribbean Islands, Columbus was certainly actuated 
by high and honorable motives, and he was in this and every 
other act of his affecting the welfare or destiny of the natives 
led by a most zealous desire for their salvation. They were 
familiar with or at least could use to some extent the various 
languages spoken by the different tribes of the West India 
Islands, so that he thought it was a great blessing to these 
benighted savages to send them to Spain in great numbers. 
Such as returned to their native archipelago converts to Chris- 
tianity could be useful in assisting the missionaries in their apos- 
tolic labors for the conversion of the Indians ; such as remained 



ON COLUMBUS. 257 

in Spain would certainly gain the faith and save their souls, even 
though this was accomplished as an exchange for their liberty. 
It is true that this noted memorial or letter contained recommenda- 
tions which, while in keeping with the education and sentiments 
of that age, were such as the Christian and enlightened sentiment 
of the nineteenth century can but condemn, and which were in 
the end disastrous in their application to the American continents 
and in their effects upon the Indians for centuries to come. De- 
sirous at once of promoting the speedy conversion of these fierce 
Caribs to Christianity, and to make the great enterprise in which 
he was embarked remunerative to his sovereigns, he proposed j 
to establish an exchange of Carib captives for the live stock that 
was needed for the colony. Spanish merchants were to furnish 
the live stock and deliver the same at the island of Isabella, and 
there the Caribs would be delivered on board the ships, be car- 
ried to Spain and sold into slavery ; the royal treasury would 
receive a considerable tax on every slave thus imported into the , 
kingdom, by which the outlays of the government for the newly i 
discovered countries would be returned tenfold, and the colonies 
would be supplied with valuable and necessary live stock with- 
out cost. While it would be unjust to judge the motives and 
conduct of public men and sovereigns in the fifteenth century 
by the more enlightened and humane sentiments prevailing in 
■our times, there was one circumstance or fact forming a part of 
the history of this transaction which goes far to palliate them. 
The Caribbean Islanders were themselves the open and avowed 
enemies of human liberty, and the promoters of the most cruel 
forms of human slavery ; they used their superior military skill, 
numbers, and power for the enslavement of their peaceful and 
innocent neighbors. Not only did they descend, without warn- 
ing or notice, upon the simple, gentle, and unwarlike communities 
within their reach, and seize men, women, and children and 
carry them off to the fiercest forms of slavery, but they practised 
the utmost disregard to human life ; for not only were their vic- 
tims killed to make repasts for the savage appetites of their can- 
nibal masters, but thousands of lives were wantonl}- and cruelly 
sacrificed. Such a race could not complain if another, stronger 
and more powerful, arrested their diabolical practices by captur- 
ing them and consigning them to a less cruel form of slavery than 
they inflicted upon others ; and that, too, among a people and to 



258 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

masters who respected and protected human Ufe ; and, above- 
all, in a country where the inestimable gain of the Christian faith 
would be theirs to accept. At the same time, while these facts 
have an important and ameliorating influence, the human race, 
in the interests of justice, humanity, and liberty, has the right 
to object to the transfer of any of its members from a state of 
liberty to one of slavery. Historians have united in doing jus- 
tice to the motives of Columbus, who is recognized as " obeying 
the dictates of his conscience ;" * but the Spanish sovereigns 
have gained imperishable honor and glory in rejecting the well- 
meant but mistaken recommendations of the admiral, and in 
decreeing that the Caribs were entitled to liberty, and that their 
conversion to Christianity should be conducted in the same 
manner as that of the other Indians. Isabella is especially cred-^ 
ited with the authorship of this benign and generous decree. 
This subject will be referred to again. 

Retaining five ships for the use of the colony and for the 
prosecution of further discoveries, the admiral saw, with blended 
feelings of pride and shame, of hope and disappointment, the 
return fleet sail from the port of Isabella on February 2d, 1494, 
and with it went the prayers and best wishes of the man who 
had brought, by his genius, the two hemispheres together, face 
to face, and now by his wise and generous efforts was laying 
the foundations of new empires and of future nations. While 
the failure and disaster of the first colony left in the new world 
was discouraging to the Spanish king and queen and to all 
Europe, the buoyant and sanguine letter of Columbus had great 
weight in sustaining the advancing cause of humanity and civili- 
zation, while the specimens of gold which he sent gave promise 
of future wealth and of rich tribute from the new to the old 
world. Letters from Father Boil, Dr. Chanca, and other promi- 
nent companions of Columbus confirmed the favorable accounts 
of the country and its products given by the admiral, and Gor- 
valan related, in person, what he had seen of the beautiful islands, 
the rich soil, the genial climate, the gentle natives, and the 
rich deposits of gold which gave value and glory to the peaceful 
conquests of the sovereigns and of their zealous viceroy. The 
sordid sentiments of selfish and pusillanimous minds were silenced 



* Irving's " Life of Columbus," vol. i., p. 347. 



ON COLUMBUS. 259 

by the better and higher judgment of the great and good and 
learned men of Europe. Scholars and philanthropists united in 
extolling the grandeur of the great achievement of Columbus, 
and in sustaining his able and exalted movements for extending 
the realms of trade, civilization, and Christianity. 

The building of the new city of Isabella, in the mean time, had 
progressed ; the first Christian church in the new world was so 
far completed as to allow the celebration of high mass within its 
sacred walls on the feast of the Epiphany, January 6th, 1494. 
This august ceremony was performed with imposing pomp and 
inspiring grandeur by Father Boil, assisted by Friar Antonio de 
Marchena and the twelve ecclesiastics who had accompanied the 
former. Columbus did all in his power to hasten the completion 
of the city, and the Indians, whose fears were allayed by the 
benignity of the admiral, gave their labor with cheerfulness, and 
deemed themselves more than repaid by the European trifles 
they received in return. He gave his personal attention to ev^ery 
work with untiring energy and activity ; but now the sad reac- 
tion continued its dread work. The miserable provisions which 
had been shipped from Cadiz, and others which had spoiled on 
the voyage, as already mentioned, had begun to spread disease 
in the colony. The men had become fatigued with the unaccus- 
tomed labor of building a city, or with disappointment at not 
realizing immediate fortunes from exhaustless mines of gold, or 
chagrined at seeing the homeward fleet return without them ; 
others were affrighted at every calamity or horror ; the wilder- 
ness looked silent, gloomy, and endless. The result of all these 
gloomy experiences was a widespread feeling of discontent. The 
admiral, exhausted in mind and body by his labors, cares, anx- 
ieties, the apprehension of a general disaffection in the colony, 
and suffering himself from bad food, was seized by the prevail- 
ing epidemic. Yet from his sick-bed he administered all things 
with clearness, vigor, and ability. Having inquired from the 
natives concerning the interior of the island, and having sent a 
caravel to explore it, his sanguine mind became convinced that 
the new city was well located, and that the wealth of Cibao, 
which he estimated as distant only three days' journey, must 
naturally pour itself into its lap. While he was seeking out the 
means of making the colony successful and prosperous, the fell 
spirit of discontent increased and was tending to mutiny. Firmin 



26o OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

Cado, the colony's metallurgist, one of the discontented spirits, 
added much to the prevailing despondency by asserting that the 
country was destitute of gold ; that the shining particles which 
the admiral took for the precious metal were merely grains of 
mica or other substance resembling gold, and that the trinkets 
of wrought gold worn by the natives were the rare and old 
products of now exhausted sources. Such was the discontent 
that a leader was all that was needed in order to turn it into 
open mutiny or rebellion. One Bernal Diaz de Pisa, a man of 
some consequence, a former official of the court, who had 
secured for himself the appointment of comptroller of the ex- 
pedition, having already had some differences with Columbus, 
presented himself at the head of the mutineers as leader. His 
plan was to seize some or all of the vessels and return with the 
mutineers to Spain ; but as preliminary to this, and to justify it, 
he became the accuser of the admiral, presumed to inquire into 
his conduct, and to show, by living witnesses, that he had de- 
ceived the sovereigns by the recent letter he had sent them, 
giving false accounts of the country. Just as this lawless gang 
were about to seize the buildings at night Columbus suddenly 
recovered his health, and having information of the plot, he had 
the ringleader arrested, and thus discovered on his person the 
evidences of his treason in his own handwriting. Here again 
the wisdom and magnanimity of the admiral were manifested. 
Instead of having De Pisa tried and condemned to death, as he 
might have done on the spot, he generously spared him, and 
sent him back to Spain with an account of his treacher}^ and mis- 
deeds, thus referring the case to the decision of the sovereigns. 
Several of the co-conspirators were mildly punished in different 
degrees, but with marked leniency. Many historians have justly 
extolled the moderation of Columbus on this and many similar 
occasions. Perhaps the severest punishment permitted by the 
law would have served as a warning for future miscreants, for 
he had to encounter many such in his checkered and eventful 
career. But his generosity sustained his sympathy for his race ; 
it never allowed the most appalling disasters, resulting from the 
baseness and ingratitude of men, to sour the amiability and 
gentleness of his nature. The admiral endeavored to preserve 
the infant colony free from the recurrence of any similar treason, 
by having the guns and naval mimitions removed from four of 



ON COLUMBUS. 261 

the vessels and stored on board the principal ship, and the latter 
was placed in the care of true and trusty men. The five ships 
were now placed under the command of his brother, Don Diego 
Columbus. The mildness of his treatment to these malcontents 
had the usual effect upon unworthy souls ; it seemed only to 
exasperate their hatred and intensify their malice against him, 
who, in this and in many similar and more serious trials of his 
life, felt the disadvantage of being a foreigner, holding authority 
over native Spaniards ; and he was hated and despised for his 
ahen birth, as if his services to Spain did not entitle him to the 
highest and most privileged form of citizenship. While reviled 
as unworthy to rule over Spaniards, scholars and philanthropists 
of all countries claimed him as a common benefactor. 

From his sick-bed Columbus, with characteristic energy of mind, 
had planned the expedition to the golden regions of Cibao, the 
dominion of the famous chief, the " Lord of the Golden House." 

" Ours is the land and age of gold, 
And ours the hallow'd time." 

— Grenville Mellen. 

Aroused from his illness by the plotting of Bernal Diaz, Firmin 
Cado, and their confederates, the admiral had given his accustom- 
ed energy and skill in organizing the march to the country of Cao- 
nabo, had made preparations for his immediate departure, and 
given the command of the ships and of the city, as stated, to his 
trusty brother. He now appointed for him a council of good and 
experienced men. Gold was one of the chief objects of this expedi- 
tion, in order to secure a revenue for Spain. It was, therefore, 
the admiral's intention to erect a fort in the mountains, as the 
centre of permanent mining operations, and as a protection to 
his men and miners ; and he desired to impress the interlying 
tribes of Indians, and especially the renowned Caonabo and his 
people, with an abiding conception of the power, grandeur, and 
prowess of the Spaniards, and to deter all the inhabitants of the 
island from future attempts at opposition, hostility, or warfare. 
Thus, not only did he choose his best men and horses, but, in 
fact, all the able-bodied men that could be safely allowed to leave 
the ships and settlement were selected ; and the cavalry, so 
feared by the natives, constituted a prominent feature of the 
march. As the little army, consisting of about four hundred 



262 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

men, went forth, their array was enlivened with oright helmets 
and corselets ; arquebuses, lances, swords, and cross-bows gave 
the impress of irresistible force to their ranks ; the gay and 
beautiful banners added picturesqueness to the pageant ; the 
music of drum and trumpet heralded their advance and prog- 
ress ; and the crowds of gaping and awe-stricken Indians showed 
how successfully the desired effect had been produced on the 
minds of the natives. 

Their armament and equipment were complete. March 
1 2th was the day of their departure ; by nightfall they had 
traversed the low country between the sea and the moun- 
tains, and they found at dusk a delightful field for their en- 
campment in a rich and beautiful country. Wild and rugged 
was the mountain-pass through which the high-spirited cavaliers 
opened at once a way for the troops, and, in honor of these 
young and aristocratic heroes of Moorish cainpaigns, who had 
rendered similar service in the mountains of Granada, the pass 
was called " El Puerto de los Hidalgos," or the Gentlemen's 
Pass. Early the following morning the gallant army struggled 
up the steep defile, and on reaching the gore at the top of the 
mountain, they looked toward the interior of the island, and 
beheld a landscape of surpassing grandeur and beauty. Imagi- 
nation was surpassed by the grand reality ; a country lay at 
their feet which was like an enchanted paradise, so grand were 
the forests, so majestic the rivers, so dim and towering the 
mountains, so luxuriant the pastures, so fresh and fragrant the 
verdure, so picturesque the villages and hamlets, so bountiful 
and luscious the fruits and herbs. Columbus called it the Royal 
Plain, or Vega, and raised his voice in thanksgiving to heaven. 

But, on the other hand, the simple inhabitants of this beautiful 
country were struck with awe or fear or admiration at the dis- 
play of arms, uniforms, and discipline. While some were terri- 
lied and ran to the woods, or hid behind their fragile barricades 
o! reeds, others came to gaze at the wonderful strangers and to 
offer them the fruits of the land. Surely these were visitors 
from heaven ! The Spaniards, by command of their chief, re- 
frained from interfering with the natives. Having crossed the 
beautiful plain, forded the Golden River, or Yagui, whose 
mouth he had seen in his first voyage, and, through another pass 
which they opened, reaching the top of the second chain of 



ON COLUMBUS. 263 

mountairxS, the troops of Ferdinand and Isabella stood and gazed 
with admiration upon the country of Cibao, the dominion of the 
famed Caonabo. In approaching the native villages the cavalry 
entered first, so as to inspire awe in the simple Indians, who 
thought the horse and the rider were one being, " a circum- 
stance," says Mr. Irvnng, " which shows that the alleged origin 
of the ancient fable of the Centaurs is at least founded in 
nature."* While the barricades of reeds behind which the 
Indians hid were of no avail in fact, Columbus regarded them 
as such, and allowed no Spaniard to pass behind them or enter 
their houses. Kindness gradually won their confidence. As 
the abundance of nature made all food a common property, 
the Indians accompanying the army freely with welcome entered 
the houses of the tribes they now passed through, and took all 
they needed. It was a rude contrast between nature and civili- 
zation, when afterward these children of the forest found them- 
selves repulsed, for the first time in the history of their tribes, 
when they in like manner innocently attempted to enter the 
abodes of the Spaniards for food, which they themselves had 
mostly supplied to their visitors without stint. 

Not only was every variety of food which the country pro- 
duced brought freely by the natives to the Spaniards — they had 
previously been visited by Ojeda's exploring party — but thej^ 
also brought the shining grains and particles of gold which they 
had picked up in torrent or brook. These, as they knew, the 
Spaniards valued more than food. Columbus and his followers 
saw in the beds of rivers and streams the glittering gold dust, 
and he readily convinced himself that the country abounded in 
mines of the precious metal. He also saw pieces of amber and 
lapis lazuli. He persuaded himself that copper also abounded. 
Were not these riches enough to detain them in the golden 
land ? He decided to continue his journey no farther ; he was 
already far from the city of Isabella ; the access was arduous 
and difficult. On an eminence on the river Yanique, well suited 
for defence, he erected Fort St. Thomas, thus named after the 
doubting apostle, in allusion to Firmin Cado and his abettors, in 
reproof of their denial of the treasures in the country until they 



* Irving's " Columbus," vol. i., p. 359 ; other references are Barry's De Lorgues' 
■" Columbus ;" Las Casas, " Hist. Ind.," and " Historia del Almirante." 



264 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

saw them with their eyes and felt them with their hands. It 
was thus strangely that moral and religious sentiments were 
mingled with the most lucrative aspirations of men. The natives 
from near and distant tribes fiocked in great numbers to visit the 
Spaniards, and entreated for the coveted trinkets in exchange 
for gold. They brought in all the gold dust and glittering par- 
ticles they could gather. One old man, from a distance, brought 
in two pieces of purest ore weighing an ounce. He was enrap- 
tured at receiving a hawk's bell in exchange for these. When 
Columbus wondered at their great size, he gave signs that they 
were trifling in comparison with the pieces of gold found in his 
own country, which was distant only half a day's journey. This 
story was surpassed by that of others, who, having brought in 
pieces weighing ten and twelve drams, informed the admiral that 
in their country it was common to find pieces of virgin ore as large 
as a child's head. The admiral shrewdly noticed that in every 
instance the fabulous quantities of gold were located in some 
other region than the one he was then visiting. In order to test 
these shifting legends, Columbus sent a young and valiant cavalier 
of Madrid, Juan de Luxan, on an expedition, with a picked party 
of armed men, to explore the country of Cibao, which, as he 
judged from the descriptions of the natives, must be equal in 
size to the Kingdom of Portugal ; and thus he obtained valuable 
information. While the general aspect of the province of Cibao 
resembled that of the country he had just traversed, it was 
equally productive, abounded in fruits, among which was the 
native grape, remarkable for its ready flow of juice and pleasant 
flavor ; and every stream bore the golden particles in greater or 
less quantities. There was other information which Juan de 
Luxan only communicated to the admiral, and this was supposed 
to embody the secrets which he obtained from the Indians indi- 
cating the locations of the most favored gold-bearing spots in 
the mountains.* 

Fort St. Thomas, planned and built under the sound judgment 
of Columbus, when completed was garrisoned with fifty-six 
chosen men and some horses, and placed under the command of 
Pedro Margarite, a citizen and gentleman of Madrid, whom 



* Irving's " Columbus," vol. i., pp. 364, 365 ; Barry's De Lorgues' " Columbus;'* 
Peter Martyr, decad. i., lib. iii. 



ON COLUMBUS. 265 

.1 

Columbus, on account of his large family and poverty, had rec- 
ommended to the Spanish sovereigns, but who, like many others 
accepting his aid, proved most ungrateful to their best friend, 
and disloyal to duty and country. 

On his return to Isabella, Columbus rested with his followers 
in the Indian villages, in order to accustom the Spaniards and 
Indians to each other's society and to each other's methods, and 
to accustom the former to the use of the Indian foods. On the 
banks of the Rio Verde he met a party of Spaniards on their 
way to provide the fortress with food, and here he remained a 
few days and permanently fixed the route of communication 
between city and fort. With characteristic application he closely 
studied the manners, customs, traditions, religion, and native 
government of his new subjects, and in this he was much assisted 
by the intelligent observations and reports of Juan de Luxan, 
and by the experiences and studies of a zealous and pious hermit 
named Roman Pane, of the Order of St. Jerome, and commonly 
called " the poor hermit," who labored with apostolic zeal among 
the natives, studied their language, or rather the Marcorix dia- 
lect, which was the one most generally understood throughout 
the island, and had done good missionary service in the Royal 
Vega. From these studies and sources the admiral learned 
many things at variance with his first impressions. The natives 
were not so pacific as he had at first supposed, for it was found 
that the different tribes were sometimes at war with each other, 
and all of them had become somewhat inured to arms froijn the 
necessity of defending themselves against the hostile attacks of 
the Caribs. Though naturally of simple and gentle natures, 
Caonabo had introduced a more military sentiment among 
them. Nor were the natives destitute of rehgious traditions, 
as Columbus at first supposed, for he now found that they 
believed in one Supreme Being, whose kingdom was in the 
skies, who had a mother, but no father, and who was immortal, 
omnipotent, and invisible. In its minor details the religion 
of the natives bore some resemblance to that of the Greeks 
and Romans, for they seemed to have inferior or tutelar deities 
intermediate between man and the supreme God, and who 
were also the divinities of the home, the weather, the storms, 
the seas, forests, springs, fountains, and elements. They had 
their priests, the latter being also their medicine-men. They 



266 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

also worshipped idols, which they hid from the Spaniards, in 
order to prevent them from destroying them in their zeal for the 
Christian faith. The practice of painting or tattooing their 
bodies prevailed, and the images of their deities were thus 
painted and exhibited on their persons. Of their religious cere- 
monies, a principal one alone has been handed down to us, 
which consisted of solemn processions, offerings of cakes and 
flowers, dances by the females, invocations, house-blessing, and 
similar rites. Their idols represented beings that assisted the 
crops and harvests, aided women in child-birth, or invoked 
abundant rains and sunshine. Columbus sent to Spain some of 
these idols. Their traditions of the origin of man were crude 
, and absurd, but they had a tradition of the great flood, had a 
funeral service for the dead, conceived the idea of soul as dis- 
tinct from body, believed in a future place of happiness, and, 
like most barbarous nations, their dances had a superstitious or 
devotional character. Hospitality was a natural virtue of these 
simple tribes ; they received from a bountiful soil all they needed 
for food, and they toiled not ; neither did they spin, for the 
mildness of the climate rendered clothing unnecessary, and they 
were innocent of shame. Truly the Royal Vega seemed like an 
earthly paradise. Had the mild and just spirit of Columbus pre- 
vailed, such it might have continued to the present time, with all 
the ennobling and purifying elements of the Christian religion and 
civilization added ; but, alas ! the vices of Christians rather than 
their virtues have dominated over the native races of the new 
world. 

The return of the admiral to the city of Isabella did not bring 
him rest of mind or body. Scarcely had he reached his new 
residence and inspected the ships, houses, fort, and colony, when 
he received tidings from Pedro Margarite, the commander of 
Fort St. Thomas, that the friendly deportment of the natives 
had been changed to preparations for war, as seen from their 
ceasing to hold intercourse with the Spaniards and from their 
leaving their homes and villages to assemble in some place of 
rendezvous. The warlike Caonabo was assembling an army to 
attack the fortress ; but the Spanish commander omitted to relate 
the causes of these changes in the feelings of the Indians toward 
their visitors. The latter, in fact, had, almost immediately after 
the departure of the admiral, given way to their worst passions. 



ON COLUMBUS. 267 

the lust for gold and for women ; the Indians were robbed of 
their property and outraged in their homes and affections. 
Caonabo did not recognize the right of even a Christian and 
civilized race to intrude upon their country and appropriate it to 
themselves ; he deemed the title which his people derived from 
nature and possession as a good title, which they also possessed 
the natural right to defend. Columbus, above all men, abhorred 
and denounced the vices and crimes of Europeans toward the 
natives of the Western Hemisphere ; he regarded his advent 
among them as the mission of Christianit)% civilization, and jus- 
tice ; and while he advanced the right of Christian nations to 
discover and appropriate the countries of the heathens, he tem- 
pered this high prerogative with justice, truth, and equity. 
Knowing the weakness of the people he had just visited, he con- 
tented himself with sending to Fort St. Thomas a reinforcement 
of twenty men, together with provisions and ammunitions. He 
also improved the communication between fortress and city by 
sending out a party of thirty men to open and improve the road 
between them. 

While he felt that his late expedition into the interior of the 
island had greatly advanced his enterprise by the acquisition of 
new knowledge of the country and of its inhabitants, and had 
secured him a fortified foothold in the mountains, he now also 
observed with pleasure the wonderful productiveness of the 
climate and soil, and the development of the agricultural inter- 
ests of the colony. Having distributed the plants and seeds he 
brought from Europe among the colonists, he saw with satisfac- 
tion how they flourished in the new world, and how forward and 
rapid everything germinated and grew in this favored land. 
The sugar-cane was an important success, the native vine im- 
proved under skilful pruning, and the vines of Spain flourished 
in the virgin soil, as did everj^ fruit and vegetable, plant and 
tree he had introduced. The countr}^ began to assume the 
-aspect of culture ; orchards, gardens, and farms in some instances 
began to rival or surpass those of older countries. He saw 
toward the end of March ears of wheat which had been sown 
with seed toward the end of January. Such was the fecundity 
of the soil, such the genial heat and moisture of the climate, that, 
while the smaller garden vegetables and herbs ripened in sixteen 
daj's, the larger ones, such as melons, cucumbers, gourds, and 



268 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

such like adorned the tables of the colonists within a month from 
the planting- of the seeds. 

But the beautiful harmony of nature, the co-operation of soil 
and climate, to produce the bountiful fruits which Providence 
thus provided for man, contrasted more disastrously with the 
discord, avarice, and bad passions of man himself. Time has 
shown that, under the superior knowledge which civilized man 
possesses of the laws of health and of acclimatization, the Span- 
iards could have lived in health and prosperity in the new coun- 
tries they had so much coveted ; but the vices of the men them- 
selves developed the prevalence of a disease hitherto unknown to 
the Indians, and, if traceable to an European origin, of probably 
recent origin, and not generally understood ; which would seem 
like a divine judgment on the lust of the Spaniards were it not for 
the fact that it became communicated to the helpless and un- 
tutored savages, the victims of European passions. The heat 
and humidity of the climate, the undrained marshes, and the un- 
cultivated soil added the evil of malaria ; and fevers prevailed to 
an alarming degree among the colonists and soldiers. The sick- 
ness was aggravated by discontent and despair ; and proper food 
was wanting for the nourishment of the sick and suffering. While 
the productive soil would j-ield two crops in the year, the pres- 
ent season was marked by scarcity of food. The meats were 
spoiled, the medicines were exhausted almost, and the wine was 
scarce. But these sufferings did not allay the passions of men, 
and retribution soon followed. The laboring men had been 
overworked perhaps, but the hidalgos, wrapped in the mantle of 
pride and punctilio, became the drones of a society struggling 
for existence and life. All united, however, in denouncing and 
cursing the most meritorious and self-sacrificing man in the 
colon}^ its best friend, the father of all, the watchful and provi- 
dent viceroy and admiral ; for had they heeded the injunctions 
of Columbus, a different result would have followed. 

His own followers gave more anxiety and trouble to Colum- 
bus, though only a handful of men, than the whole Indian popu- 
lation of the islands he discovered in the new world ; but for the 
former, their vices and their passions, he could have probably 
proceeded on to discover, and could have governed the new 
countries, with their aboriginal populations, with comparative 
ease and peace. It was the misconduct of the Europeans that 



ON COLUMBUS. 269 

caused the Indians, in almost every instance except that of the 
Caribs, to become hostile toward the advance of European civili- 
zation in America ; but now arms had been drawn and blood had 
been shed. 

In the trying position in which he was now placed, Columbus 
found it necessary to take prompt and decided measures. As a 
means of relieving the impoverished and hungry city from the 
duty of feeding so many mouths, as well as of keeping the now- 
disquieted and offended Indians at peace, he decided to distribute 
the military forces at his command, consisting of four hundred 
infantry and sixteen cavalry, through the interior of the island, 
leaving only the workmen and the sick at the city. The entire 
population of Isabella, high and low, was placed on short allow- 
ance, and, with his usual consistency, Columbus was the first to 
practise his own rule of abstinencne. Wheat was almost the 
onl}'' food left, and this was in the grain ; so that for want of mills 
each one was compelled to grind his own wheat with a hand- 
mill. The viceroy determined to erect a public mill and to 
complete the canal that was to pass through the city, and as a 
measure of justice he compelled the laborer and the hidalgo to 
work together, and enforced this rule under severe penalties. 
Compulsory labor is always an unwelcome task, but to high- 
spirited young cavaliers, many of whom had not even come out 
for wealth or gain, but to seek adventures worthy of their names, 
it was indescribably offensive. But the stern admiral enforced 
his orders unrelentingly. This measure drew upon him the 
hatred and denunciations of this class, and, on account of sons or 
relatives in Hispaniola, the hostility of some of the proudest and 
most powerful of the old Spanish families at home. So many of 
these proud and undisciplined young men fell victims to the 
condition of things prevailing at Isabella, that in after years, 
when Isabella had ceased to be a city and was abandoned to 
owls, bats, and wild beasts, a popular superstition peopled it 
with the living ghosts of the departed hidalgos who had been 
buried there. 

Las Casas, Herrera, Washington Irving,* and other authors 
relate the superstitious legend ; and the following passage from 



* Las Casas, " Hist. Ind,," lib. i., cap. 92 ; MS. Herrera, " Hist. Ind,," decad. i., 
lib. ii., cap. 12. 



2/0 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

Mr. Irving is as graphic and ghastl}'^ as the most morbid taste 
could desire : " Like all decayed and deserted places, it [the city 
of Isabella] soon became an object of awe and superstition to the 
common people, and no one ventured to enter its gates. Those 
who passed near it, or hunted the wild swine which abounded in 
the neighborhood, declared they heard appalling voices issue 
from within its walls by night and day. The laborers became 
fearful, therefore, of cultivating the adjacent fields. The story 
went, says Las Casas, that two Spaniards happened one day to 
wander among the ruined edifices of the place. On entering one 
of the solitary streets, they beheld two rows of men, evidently, 
from their stately demeanor, hidalgos of noble blood and cavaliers 
of the court. They were richly attired in the old Castilian 
mode, with rapiers by their side, and broad traveling hats, such 
as were worn at the time. The two men were astonished to 
behold persons of their rank and appearance apparently inhabit- 
ing that desolate place, unknown to the people of the island. 
They saluted them, and inquired whence they came and when 
they had arrived. The cavaliers maintained a gloomy silence, 
but courteously returned the salutation by raising their hands to 
their sombreros or hats, in taking off which their heads came off 
also, and their bodies stood decapitated. The whole phantom 
assemblage then vanished. So great was the astonishment and 
horror of the beholders, that they had nearly fallen dead, and 
remained stupefied for several days." * 

In spite of ever}^ opposition and of the ill-will of the cavaliers 
and other unwilling workers in the colony, Columbus succeeded 
in pushing on the public mill, the canal, and other public works 
to completion, and the result showed the wisdom and necessity 
of his course. While the Count de Lorgues earnestly sustains 
his stern justice and impartiality, Mr. Irving seems affected with 
S3'mpathy for the unfortunate hidalgos thus compelled to manual 
labor. In old and established communities, where rank and 
position form a part of the order and economy of the State, such 
measures would be justly regarded as arbitrary and despotic in 
the extreme. But in an infant colony, planted recently, thou- 
sands of miles away from the civilized world, stricken with sick- 
ness and famine, all men, members of such a society, are relegated 



* Irving's " Columbus," vol. i., p. 385. 



ON COLUMBUS. 3/1 

back to their natural rights and duties and to their primitiv^e 
equality ; and as all needed food, and all clung to life, the law of 
nature would require all equally to labor and to sacrifice. But 
men never recede from an advantage once gained, even though 
it be one of mere honor or rank, if they can help it ; and the 
stern discipline of the admiral gave an ineffaceable insult and sense 
of wrong to the Spanish cavaliers. 

He ordered the garrison at Isabella to the interior of the island, 
thus relieving the sick and hungry residents of the city, inspiring 
the natives with awe and fear of the Spanish power, exploring 
the island, gaining knowledge of its strategic points, and of the 
mines of gold it contained. The men thus sent out, also from 
necessity became accustomed to the diet of the natives. The 
troops were sent to Pedro Margarite, who remained in command 
of the Fort St. Thomas, and Alonzo de Ojeda, who conducted 
the expedition from Isabella to Fort St. Thomas, remained in 
command of the entire military force of the island. Such is the 
account of Count de Lorgues ; but Mr. Irving states that Ojeda 
superseded Margarite as commander of the fort, and the latter 
was placed in command of the whole army. Every able-bodied 
man that could be spared was placed in the army, which, when 
all were mustered, contained two hundred and fifty cross-bow 
men, one hundred and ten arquebusiers, sixteen horsemen, and 
twenty officers. From the fact that it was Margarite who made 
the military exploration of the island, it is more probable that 
it was he who retained, by orders of the admiral, the com- 
mand of the army, while Ojeda became commander at Fort St. 
Thomas. 

The discontent which arose from the measures of the admiral 
grew in extent and violence. Not only did the cavaliers take 
umbrage at the edict requiring all to labor, but as the admiral 
made the rule of short rations universal, and himself submitted 
to the general necessity and regulation, the rule included some 
who, while they should have supported the measure and have 
given a good example to others, inconsiderately opposed it. 
Among these was Father Boil, the vicar apostolic. The charge 
of cruelty having been made, this ecclesiastic conferred a sem- 
blance of truth to the accusation by sustaining it. He did not 
submit meekly to the reduction in the allowances of food. Orig- 
inally he had been an admirer of Columbus, but from the moment 



2/2 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

the admiral decided to trust in the truth and loyalty of the native 
chief, Guacanagari, against the severer counsels of the vicar 
apostolic, the latter evidently nursed a resentment born rather of 
wounded pride than of discreet zeal. His sentiments now found 
open expression. He sustained the charge of cruelty which the 
misguided people made so unjustly against Columbus, thus giving 
plausibility to it, and the course he adopted had a direct ten- 
dency and effect of fomenting disaffection and of finally leading 
to revolt. Father Boil had been accustomed rather to diplo- 
matic than missionary services, and the apostolate, which he 
might have honored, illy suited his tastes. Many of the twelve 
missionaries of various religious orders participated in his lack 
of zeal and self-sacrifice, and spent their time mostly in untimely 
regrets for the homes they had left and in criticising the actions 
of the admiral. There were some honorable exceptions, how- 
ever, to this state of things, and the good brother, Juan Bergog- 
non, and " the pious hermit," as he was called, Roman Pane, are 
entitled to be named with reverence. It is to be hoped that few 
of the missionaries fully participated in Father Boil's sentiments 
expressed in his letter to the sovereigns, acknowledging the diffi- 
culties of the Indian language, the inutility of his remaining, and 
requesting his recall. 

Recent researches among the Vatican secret archives have dis- 
closed the singular fact that Father Bernard Boil, whose name 
has been tortured into a dozen different forms, such as Buil, by 
Winsor, and Boyle, by Fiske, " which," the latter remarks, 
" strongly suggests an Irish origin," was not, in fact, the person 
appointed by the Holy See to the high office of Vicar Apostolic 
of the Indies ; and that the person appointed, in fact, was Father 
Bernard Boyle, the Provincial of the Franciscan Order in Spain.* 
It was the wily Ferdinand who availed himself of the similarity 
in the names, and substituted a favorite of his own. Father Boil 
or Buil, a Benedictine monk of Catalonia, Both the Count de 
Lorgues and the Italian historian and publicist, Francesco Tar- 



* It is not at all surprising that between Rome and Spain a mistake was made in 
the appointment of Father Boil as vicar apostolic for another of a similar name, 
since his name was rendered in so many different forms — viz., Boil, Buil, Buy!, Buyll, 
Buill, Bueill, Buillius, Bueillus, Buelius, Buellius, Bucillus, Bucillius, and finally 
Boyle. 



ON COLUMBUS. 2/3 

ducci, circumstantially mention this fact.* The latter says : 
" Father Boil was a learned Benedictine, an accomplished diplo- 
matist, and the king and queen had repeatedly made use of his 
ability, employing him with profit in the negotiations with 
France for the restitution of Roussillon. Now, when Columbus 
. came back telling of his discovery, and every one believed that 
he had reached the extreme eastern limits of Asia, near the em- 
pire of the Grand Khan and the states of the other powerful 
monarchs of the East, as it was necessary to send some one to 
preside over the new church they were sure of establishing in 
those countries, the prudent Ferdinand set his eyes on this man 
as one who, at the same time that he was fulfilling the duties of 
his ecclesiastical dignity, would be of great use to him as an 
able diplomatist in his relations with those distant courts, and 
proposed his name to Rome. The consequence was that instead 
of a priest full of the spirit of the Gospel and of self-denial, fitted 
to sustain worthily and fruitfully the office of apostle, there was 
sent out to those naked savages a friar with his head filled with 
subtleties, cabals, and the wisdom that rules the art of politics. 
There has lately been discovered, in the secret archives of the 
Vatican, the original bull instituting the vicariate apostolic of the 
new regions discovered by Columbus. The date is July 7th, 
1493, but the person there named for that dignity is not Father 
Bernard Boil, of the Order of St. Benedict, but Father Bernard 
Boyle, Provincial of the Order of St. Francis in Spain ; and as 
it is certain that it was the Benedictine who received and exe- 
cuted that duty in the new world, it is suspected that the Pope 
had nominated the Franciscan before he had received the pro- 
posal of King Ferdinand in favor of the Benedictine monk. But 
when the bulls were received in Spain, finding that the person 
named by the Pope responded perfectly in name and surname 
(no account being taken of the y instead of the t, both being 
pronounced alike), the only difference being the designation of 
the religious order to which he belonged, it was easily believed, 
or pretended to be believed, that this designation was a mistake, 
and the bulls were given effect in favor of Father Bernard Boil, 
the Benedictine." f 

* Tarducci's " Life of Columbus," vol. i., p. 35S, Brownson's translation ; Count 
de Lorgues' "Columbus," p. 320, Dr. Barry's translation. 

f Munoz, lib. iv., § xxii. ; Navarrete, Doc. No. xlv. ; Brownson's translation 



,274 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

It must be admitted, however, that when Father Boil accepted 
the appointment of vicar apostolic, he and his friend. King Ferdi- 
nand, in common with all the rest of the world, supposed that 
he was only to exchange the regal surroundings of the court of 
Spain for those of the Grand Khan and other Oriental potentates. 
Little did he suppose that instead of practising the subtleties oi 
Machiavelli with brilliancy among Oriental scholars and diplo- 
mats, his mission would turn out to be the simpler yet in our 
eyes the more holy and exalted one of instructing the simple 
savages of Hispaniola in the sublime doctrines of Christ from the 
Catechism, the humblest yet profoundest of books. Expectation 
yielded to disappointment and disgust at his position, which 
became galling to the distinguished ecclesiastic ; this was in-, 
creased when he found himself less influential in the government 
and councils of the Indies, even though he was appointed one of 
the council to assist Don Diego in the administration during the 
admiral's absence in the expedition to explore Cuba and Jamaica ; 
he found his influence less in Hispaniola than in Spain, under 
Columbus than under Ferdinand ; and the ill-will he conceived 
at the refusal of Columbus to follow his harsh measures recom- 
mended toward the cacique, Guacanagari, culminated when the 
friar was put on short rations with the rest of the colony when 
it was threatened with starvation. Such was the resentful con- 
duct of Father Boil, that Tarducci says he had his food entirely 
cut off by the admiral ; but this was not done until the culminating 
act of the vicar apostolic, which I will now relate. 

Father Boil went to the extremity of using his ecclesiastical 
functions as a weapon in a purely secular and personal quarrel 
of his own. He pronounced sentence of excommunication against 
the admiral. It does not seem that Columbus paid any regard 
to this manifestl}' unjust proceeding, or ever sought its reversal,, 
nor did it ever seem to affect his actual relations with the Church. 
The whole matter is thus mentioned and expounded by the Rev. 
Arthur George Knight, of the Society of Jesus, in his " Life of 
Columbus," wherein he quotes the high theological authority of 
Father Gury, in his " Compendium of Moral Theology. " Father 
Knight says : " The real anxiety of Columbus lay in the new 



of Tarducci's "Columbus," vol. i., p. 358; Barry's De Lorgues' "Columbus," 
p. 319. 



ON COLUMBUS. 2/$ 

city. Strange maladies, caused by noxious vapors and helped 
by vicious indulgence, spread among the Spaniards. The supply 
of flour failed, and hands to grind the wheat were growing' 
scarcer every day. It was no time, the viceroy thought, for 
standing upon pride of caste. He ordered all the able-bodied 
men, gentle and simple, to take their turn at the grinding, under 
penalty of having their rations diminished. This was an indig- 
nity not to be borne by the ' blue blood ' of Spain, even though 
no other course could save the little colony from famine and 
pestilence. Father Boil sympathized with the young cavaliers, 
and reproved Columbus for his ' cruelty ' when, according to his 
threat, he punished the refractory by diminution of rations. By 
loudly proclaiming his disapprobation of the measures adopted, 
he, perhaps thoughtlessly, did much to foment disaffection. 
When, in spite of his remonstrances, the admiral persisted in his 
conscientious efforts to save his people from destruction. Father 
Boil committed the extravagant folly of excommunicating him 
for doing what he felt to be his duty. He was altogether in- 
capable of understanding the great soul of Columbus. Either 
the theological course of study at La Rabida, or common sense, 
was enough to certify that the censures of the Church onl}^ fall 
upon sinful acts, and that where no fault exists excommunication 
only causes external annoyance, and imposes no obligation bind- 
ing in conscience beyond the general duty of receiving even an 
unjust sentence with respectful demeanor. Under very peculiar 
circumstances acquiescence may be sinful. Even ecclesiastical 
superiors must be disobeyed if they command an injustice, and 
spiritual penalties in such case fall harmlessly upon the soul 
which in good faith disregards them at the bidding of con- 
science.* Father Boil was resisting legitimate authority in a 
civil matter, and deserved chastisement. As he had not the 
spirit of a martyr, a little fasting on bread and water reduced 
him to silence, though of course it did not improve his temper. 
Many proud spirits had been offended beyond forgiveness, but a 
more conciliatory policy might have been even more disastrous, 
and probably was not feasible. The hidalgos were not open to 
argument where their pride was touched. To exempt them 
from a share in the burden was to throw it all upon a few poor 



* "Compendium Theologicum Morale," P. Joan Gury, S. J., t. ii., §§ 932, 934, 937. 



2^6 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

men, who, with their decreasing numbers, would have had to be 
literally worked to death to supply the growing wants of the 
invalids and privileged idlers. Columbus in this emergency 
showed once more that indomitable will which clings to duty at 
all costs, and braves popular clamor rather than commit injustice 
or depart from principle."* While historians uniformly con- 
demn the conduct of Father Boil, and no doubt his brethren of 
the Order of St. Benedict unite with them, it must be acknowl- 
edged that the Benedictines have since and now a hundred-fold 
repaired the scandal his example then gave, as is well exemplified 
in America by the numerous Benedictine abbeys, priories, col- 
leges, convents, and schools in our own country. Those vener- 
able monks now have in the United States two arch abbots, seven 
mitred abbots, and a host of pious and learned religious conduct- 
ing the Benedictine institutions in our midst. 

While it was easy for persons thus necessarily subjected to 
distasteful privations for the common safety to accuse Columbus 
of cruelty even toward his Spanish followers, and some historians 
have unguardedly been led to this view, it has well been re- 
marked that the progress of riper studies and more thorough re- 
searches has tended of late greatly to the vindication of Colum- 
bus, and to the exaltation of his name and character. Not only 
is this true in respect to the charge of arbitrary administration 
and cruel measures toward the colonists he brought to Hispaniola, 
but it is equally true in respect to the impression that he was 
destitute of the faculty of wise and discreet government, which 
is now a refuted statement. 

The charges of cruelty and tyranny which his enemies made 
against Columbus have been often refuted. Mr. John Fiske, in 
his admirable work on " The Discovery of America," vol. i., 
p. 48 1 j writes justly and ably on this subject, and says : " No 
marked effect seems to have been produced by these first com- 
plaints, but when Margarite and Boyle [Boil] were once within 
reach of Fonseca, we need not wonder that mischief was soon 
brewing. It was unfortunate for Columbus that his work of 
exploration was hampered by the necessity of founding a colony 
and governing a parcel of unruly men, let loose in the wilderness, 



* "The Life of Columbus," by Arthur George Knight, of the Society of Jesus. 
pp. 1 19-2 1. 



ON COLUMBUS. 277 

far away from the powerful restraints of civilized society. Such 
work required undivided attention and extraordinary talent for 
command. It does not appear that Columbus was lacking in 
such talent. On the contrary, both he and his brother Bartholo- 
mew seem to have possessed it in a high degree ; but the situa- 
tion was desperately bad when the spirit of mutiny was fomented 
by deadly enemies at court. I do not find adequate justification 
for the charges of tyranny brought against Columbus. The ve- 
racity and fairness of the history of Las Casas are beyond ques- 
tion. In his divinely beautiful spirit one sees now and then a 
trace of tenderness even for Fonseca, whose conduct toward 
him was always as mean and malignant as toward Columbus. 
One gets from Las Casas the impression that the admiral's high 
temper was usually kept under firm control, and that he showed 
far less severity than most men would have done under similar 
provocation. Bartholomew was made of sterner stuff, but his 
whole career shows no instance of wanton cruelty ; toward both 
white men and Indians his conduct was distinguished by clem- 
ency and moderation. Under the government of these brothers 
a few scoundrels were hanged in Hispaniola. Many more ought 
to have been." 



CHAPTER X. 

" Where'er thou journeyest, or whate'er thy care. 
My heart shall follow and my spirit share." 

— Mrs. Sigourney. 

" Oh, sad vicissitudes 
Of earthly things ! To what untimely end 
Are all the fading glories that attend 
Upon the state of greatest monarchs brought ! 
What safety can by policy be wrought, 
Or rest be found on fortune's restless wheel." 

— May's " Henry II." 

Before departing on his long-intended voyage of discovery 
among the islands of the new world, Columbus, with sagacity 
and forethought, placed everything in Hispaniola in the best 
condition then and there possible. He was habitually most 
painstaking in all such emergencies, and endeavored to foresee 
and provide in advance for them. In the first place, he wrote a 
detailed and admirable series of instructions for Margarite, to 
whom was intrusted the preservation of the peace of the island 
during the admiral's absence. His first injunctions charged that 
commander, above all things, to protect the natives from all 
injustice and ill-treatment at the hands of the Spaniards, and by 
kindness "to win their good-will and friendship ; he was on all 
occasions, however, to exact from the natives the respect due to 
the Spanish authority, and the observance of the rights of prop- 
erty ; thefts from the Spaniards were to be severely punished ; 
all purchases of food from the natives for the Spaniards were to 
be justly and fully paid for, and only in cases of necessity was he 
to compel them to part with provisions, and to then always 
temper compulsion with kindness. Private dealings between the 
Spaniards and the natives were strictly forbidden, and, even 
above all gold and food, the conversion of the Indians to Chris- 
tianity was to be preferred, such being the wish of the Spanish 
sovereigns and his own ; the strictest discipline in the army was 
to be kept up and enforced. These wise and honorable measures, 



• ON COLUMBUS. 2/9 

if faithfully carried out by Margarite, would have assuredly pre- 
served the peace of the island, and have won the friendship of the 
natives. It was true that the admiral gave instructions for the 
capture of the warlike and treacherous Caonabo and his brothers, 
for no peace could be preserved as long as they were at liberty 
to conspire and war against the Spaniards ; and though he 
authorized resort, for this purpose, to force and stratagem, he 
considered that the necessity of the case and the treacherous 
character of these enemies justified it. How far Margarite 
obeyed the instructions of his superior the sequel will show ; 
but alas ! the viceroy's authority was like the crowns of earthly 
sovereigns, which are studded outside with diamonds, but inside 
are lined with thorns. Columbus had reached a plane of glor)', 
honor, power, and dignity which made him the object of envy 
.and malice among his followers, of slander and detraction among 
courtiers, and of the ingratitude of sovereigns. 

In order also to secure the civil welfare, peace, and good 
administration of the colony and island, he appointed a council 
of eminent men to conduct affairs in his absence ; these council- 
lors were his brother, Don Diego Columbus, whom he made 
president of the council, and the other members were Father 
Boil, Pedro Fernandez Coronel, Alonzo Sanchez Caravajal, and 
Juan de Luxan. In thus appointing Father Boil, whose enmity 
to himself he well knew, was displayed one of those frequent 
acts in the life of this illustrious admiral which showed him to 
be always above private revenge, and magnanimous to his en- 
emies. He determined to leave in the colony the two largest 
ships, which he knew were of too deep a draft of water to be used 
in exploring the coasts and inlets of the island, and he took with 
him his three caravels — the Nina, or Santa Clara, the San Juan, 
and the Cordera. The important island of Hispaniola, which was 
thus left under the civil jurisdiction of Don Diego Columbus and 
the council or junta, and under the military care of Ojeda and 
Margarite, deserves some notice at our hands as to its territorial 
and political distribution. This will aid in detailing and under- 
standing our future historical narratives. 

Hayti, as the natives called it, was divided into five kingdoms 
or lordships, each of which was ruled over b)^ a king or principal 
cacique or chief, each of whom had under him a number of lesser 
caciques, lords or vassals. The five paramount caciques were 



28o OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

Guarionex, Caonabo, Behechio, Guacanagari, and Guayacoa. 
The northeast portion of the island was governed by Guarionex, 
a prince descended from the most illustrious ancestors, and in his 
dominions was situated the beautiful and grand plain, which the 
Spaniards had named the Royal Vega. In this kingdom was 
also erected the city of Isabella by the Spaniards, a liberty taken 
without condescending to ask the monarch's consent. The 
northeastern part was ruled over by the prince with whom we 
are now most familiar, the amiable but weak Guacanagari, and 
extended from Antibonite to beyond Monte Christo. The most 
eastern portions were under the rude sceptre of Guayacoa, whose 
tribe, accustomed to attacks b)' the Caribs, had become the most 
warlike and the best armed, skilled in war, and bravest, from the 
necessity they labored under of frequently defending their homes 
and country from their cannibal neighbors. The mountainous 
part of the island was reigned over by the redoubtable Caonabo, 
from the heights of Cibao to the southern shore. He was of 
Carib origin, and no one knew his pedigree, for he came a 
stranger and an adventurer. Thrown on the island by accident, 
he was there detained by a romantic love affair, and having 
become a soldier, and by his ability secured power, like another 
Napoleon, he crowned himself. He was feared by his neighbors, 
and his alliance sought. The remainder of the island, constitut- 
ing its greater part, extending from Antibonite westward toward 
Cape Tiburon, and containing the famous salt lake of Xaragua, 
which was legendary with tales of wonder and mystery, Avas 
governed by Behechio. The natives were generally of a timid 
and peaceful character, with the exception of the tribes living at 
the east and toward the Caribbean Island, and the warlike tribes 
of the warrior and lover-king, Caonabo. The soil of the whole 
island was rich, the climate enervating ; the food products were 
spontaneous and abundant, and before the advent of Europeans- 
life was blissful, indolent, and free. Such was the first perma- 
nent conquest of Europeans in America, and such the dominion 
now temporarily left by Columbus to the regency of his brother 
Diego and the Council of State. 

Having completed all his preparations, provided for all things- 
with prudence and forethought, the admiral saw Don Alonzo de 
Ojeda march forth from Isabella on April 9th, with his gallant 
little army of nearly four hundred men, who soon arrived at Rio- 



i 



ON COLUMBUS. 281 

del Oro, in the Royal Vega. Here, learning that a neighboring 
cacique had connived at the robbery of three Spaniards, return- 
ing from Fort St. Thomas, by five Indians, whom he had sent 
ostensibly to assist the travelers to ford the river, Ojeda, with 
the promptness and impulse of a soldier of the fifteenth century 
— though four intervening centuries have not materially altered 
now a soldier's method of dealing with Indians — immediately 
pursued and caught one of the robbers, and caused his ears to be 
cut off in the public square ; he arrested the cacique, his son and 
nephew, and sent them in chains to the admiral, and then coolly 
pursued his march. The admiral, generally lenient with the 
natives, now formed his judgment of the guilt of his prisoners 
from the account sent to him by Ojeda, and refusing to listen to 
the intercession of a neighboring cacique, who accompanied the 
prisoners to Isabella from sympathy, he ordered the poor and 
dejected natives to be marched, with their hands tied behind 
them, to the public square and beheaded. At the last moment 
he spared and released his royal prisoners at the entreaty of the 
friendly cacique, who went their surety that the offence should 
never be repeated. It is believed that the admiral did not from 
the beginning intend to punish the offenders with death, though 
theft was punished among the natives themselves by impalement. 
Just at this moment a Spanish horseman arrived in town from 
the fort, and reported that on passing the village of the captive 
cacique, he had found five Spaniards in the hands of his subjects ; 
but on the sight of the horse and rider the natives, four hundred 
in number, had precipitately fled, and that he had pursued them, 
wounded several with his lance, and had recaptured and tri- 
umphantly brought back the Spanish prisoners. Such adven- 
tures were greatly to the tastes of the Spanish cavaliers, many 
of whom preferred such glory to the richest booty in the precious 
metal. This incident convinced Columbus that he had nothing 
to fear from the natives, and on April 24th, 1494, he sailed out 
of port, with his three caravels, on his westward cruise of dis- 
covery and exploration. 

Columbus selected the Nina for his flag-ship, and on her deck 
he placed the admiral's pavilion. She was commanded by 
Alonzo Medel, of Palos. The Cordera was the property of 
Cristobal Perez Nino, of Palos, and the San Juan was commanded 
by a seaman from Malaga, but had a crew from Palos. It must 



282 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

be remembered that the Nina, the httle caravel which was in the 
first voyage in which America was discovered, and which 
stanchly carried him back to Europe amid terrific storms, had 
now become the Santa Clara, so called by Columbus in honor 
of St. Clare, the seraphic daughter of the Order of St. Francis. 
Among the officers he carried were Father Antonio de Marchena, 
who was an accomplished astronomer, the physician-in-chief. 
Dr. Chanca, and others of eminence and ability. 

In going to explore Cuba it must be borne in mind that Colum- 
bus and his companions, and all the world with them, believed 
that it was the Continent of Asia, and that by commencing his 
discoveries and explorations at the point where he had left off in 
the first voyage, and continuing to coast along its southern side, 
he would assuredly reach the opulent and luxurious countries so 
graphically described by Mandeville and Marco Polo, the golden 
and commercial regions of the famed Cathay. What we now 
know of the West India Islands was information first obtained 
by Columbus in this and other similar cruises ; more minute 
knowledge of them and of the two continents of the Western 
Hemisphere followed from his and other subsequent voyages ; 
and when we consider how many years passed before the con- 
tinents were explored or known as such, and the Pacific Ocean 
was discovered or entered by Europeans, we can the better 
appreciate this expedition, its importance, its method of prosecu- 
tion, and its results. So far from possessing little importance at 
the present day, it is full of interest and significance, showing 
the slow and gradual, timid and experimental manner in which 
mankind has been left by the Creator of the world to explore and 
become acquainted with the planet given them for their home. 
It constitutes an important chapter in the history of geography. 
What now could be easily accomplished by a school-bo}' on his 
3'acht in a summer vacation, then required the greatest of sea- 
men, cosmographers, and discoverers to undertake, and even 
then to leave unfinished. The feelings, thoughts, hopes, doubts, 
expedients, and bold adventures which then formed a part of 
the admiral's career of discovery and exploration must now 
become our own, and we must enter into them, adopt them, in 
order to do justice to his services, appreciate his achievements, 
and sympathize with his position. We must with him dream 
again his realizing dreams, for 



ON COLUMBUS. 283 

" Dreams are rudiments 
Of the great state to come. We dream what is 
About to happen." 

— Bailey. 

The fleet first stopped at Monte Christo, and on the very day 
of sailing reached the ill-fated harbor of La Navidad, so deeply 
associated Avith saddest events. He desired here to secure an 
interview with his friend, the cacique Guacanagari, still trusting 
in his lo3-alty and hoping to restore confidence on both sides by 
an exchange of explanations. But the weak and timid chieftain 
studiously avoided such a meeting, and retired to the woods with 
his family and simple court on seeing the ships enter the harbor ; 
and though several of his subjects assured the admiral that the 
cacique was coming to visit him on his ship, the meeting never 
took place. The amorous chief was solicitous, as is supposed, 
for the possession of his fair campanion, the proud Catalina, now 
his queen. The other object of Columbus in visiting this spot 
was to arrange for supplies to his colony from the abundance of 
friendly neighbors, but this negotiation he was obliged to forego 
for want of time ; and he sailed out of the harbor, leaving behind 
the saddest associations both of the dead and the living. The 
former could never be effaced ; but Guacanagari proved his 
fidelity afterward, and became one of the most painful sacrifices 
to the advance of Spanish dominion, in the loss of kingdom, 
home, and life itself. 

The winds not proving favorable, the fleet arrived on the 29th 
at Port St. Nicholas, and here he could see the extreme end of 
Cuba, previously named by the admiral Alpha and Omega, now 
called Point Maysi ; and, after crossing the channel and coasting 
along the southern side of Cuba for a distance of twenty leagues, 
he reached and anchored at the fine harbor of Guantanamo, then 
called by him Puerto Grande. Entering the port through the 
narrow entrance, Columbus landed near and visited the cottages 
he saw ; but the inhabitants had fled, leaving their fires expiring 
and a bountiful meal unconsumed. The Spaniards, who were 
still on short allowances of food, enjoyed the good things the 
natives had left behind ; but the guanas they could not accept, 
even though hungry, regarding them as a species of serpent, 
though Peter Martyr relates that the Indians regarded them in 
so exalted a light that, like peacocks and pheasants in Spain, the 



284 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

common people were forbidden to eat of them. The fugitive 
Indians were seen afterward assembled, to the number of about 
seventy, on a neighboring eminence, and on the Spaniards ap- 
proaching them, fled to the woods. The inhabitants of the whole 
neighborhood were struck with panic on seeing the ships. One 
of the Indians, however, lingered, and, with mingled fear and 
curiosity, finally was drawn by friendly signs to stay, though 
always on the alert. When the Lucayan interpreter from one of 
the ships accosted him in that dialect and with words of friend- 
ship, he lost all fear, approached and entered into conversation ; 
and when convinced of the friendly intentions of the Spaniards, 
he carried the tidings to his companions, whereupon these also 
gradually came forth from their retreat, and approached the 
strangers with awe and marked respect. The disposition of 
these people was pacific, like that of the Haytians ; they freely 
and pleasantly sanctioned the consumption of their feast by the 
strangers, alleging that one night's fishing would replace it, and 
accepted with unfeigned gratitude the European trifles which 
Columbus gave them in return. He never allowed their offer- 
ings to be received without a return of a full equivalent.* These 
natives had come to the shore to prepare a banquet of sea food 
for a neighboring cacique, whom their own chief was expecting 
as a visitor at his village, and the fish was cooked in order to 
save it from spoiling. 

Columbus continued his cruise on May ist to the west, and as 
he advanced the coasts became precipitate and mountainous ; he 
saw many fine harbors and rivers, and the country was more 
fertile and populous. Everywhere the neighbors came down in 
crowds to see the visitors from the skies, offering them cassava 
bread, fish, fruits, and calabashes of water, and being only too 
happy to have them accepted by such wonderful and mysterious 
beings. The admiral in one instance spent a night on shore, and 
was embarrassed by the urgent and unstinted hospitality of these 
innocent people. It is supposed that this spot is the present 
harbor of St. Jago de Cuba. As usual anxious inquiries were 
made by the Spaniards for gold, and as usual they were informed 
that it abounded farther to the south. The natives told him of 



* Irving's "Columbus," vol. i., p. 397 ; Barry's translation of De Lorgues' "Co- 
lumbus," p. 292 ; Peter Martyr, decad. i., lib. iii. 



ON COLUMBUS. 285 

a great island in that direction, which, from its reported wealth 
in gold, Columbus was convinced must be the long-sought and 
opulent island of Babeque, of whose existence he had heard on 
his first voyage. He accordingly, on May 3d, turned his prows 
to the south, abandoning his exploration of Cuba, and across the 
open sea he sailed in quest of that favored land. 

It was not many leagues before the majestic shores and moun- 
tains of Jamaica loomed up in grandeur before him, and, after 
two days' and nights' sailing, he reached and anchored in a 
beautiful harbor, to which he gave the name of Santa Gloria. 
He also gave to the vast island the name of Santiago, but it has 
ever been called by its original native name of Jamaica. Leav- 
ing the harbor the following day for a better one, he entered 
and anchored in a fine harbor, which he called Puerto Bueno. 
At his first approach to this vicinity the natives came out in 
canoes with hostile manifestations, but these by a few presents 
were dispelled. At his present harborage the natives in great 
numbers prepared for war, the shore resounded with yells and 
Avar-cries, and their javelins were hurled violently at the ships. 
The admiral, desiring to careen his ship, the Nina, for calking, 
and to send his men on shore for water, found it necessary first 
to teach a lesson of Spanish invincibility to these warlike savages. 
He sent his boats to the shore with men well armed ; a first dis- 
charge of arrows from the Spanish cross-bows wounded some 
and threw the whole native army into confusion, whereupon the 
Spaniards, springing ashore, discharged a second volle}^ of 
arrows, which put the multitude to flight. A dog from one of 
the Spanish boats pursued the Indians with terrific fury, biting 
them as they fled. Irving relates that the Spaniards let loose 
the dog to pursue the Indians, and says : " This was the first 
instance of the use of dogs against the natives, which were after- 
ward employed with such cruel effect by the Spaniards in their 
Indian wars." But the Count de Lorgues and Dr. Barry give 
a different version of the affair, as one of pure accident, and say : 
" A dog, which found its way into the party, seeing them flee, 
pursued them with fury, biting them in their hinder parts as 
they fled." They also state that it was this incident which first 
suggested to the Spaniards the idea of employing dogs against 
the Indians, as they afterward most shamefully did. Tarducci 
concurs in the latter view of the accidental presence of the dog. 



286 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

Not only were the natives of Jamaica more warlike, but their 
food was better, the fruits of finer flavor, and the plants and 
herbs more aromatic. A fruitless cruise along the coast, for 
about twenty-five leagues, having disclosed the existence of no 
gold, the admiral determined to return to Cuba ; and he thought 
that by coasting fifty or sixty leagues he could determine the 
question whether it was an island or a continent. The admiral 
was surprised to find the Jamaicans so warlike, while their neigh- 
bors were pacific. They were also much more at home on the 
water ; their canoes were large, and were made of the trunks of 
single trees ; one of them was measured by the admiral, and was 
ninety-six feet long and eight feet broad. He took formal pos- 
session of the island for the Spanish sovereigns. Just as the fleet 
was about to sail a young native came and begged to be taken 
on board the departing ship ; and as his friends and relatives 
were clinging to him and begging him to desist from so rash a 
design, his feelings for a moment vibrated between love of home 
and relatives, on the one side, and a love of adventure, novelty, 
and romance on the other ; when suddenly he tore himself away 
violently from their embrace and hid himself in a secret part of 
the ship, and thus saw and felt no more the tears and heard not 
the lamentations of his sisters. Columbus caused this young 
adventurer to be treated with marked kindness, but his subse- 
quent history and his fate have never been recorded by his- 
torians.* 

Some historians have expressed surprise that, of the many 
natives of the new world whom the early Spaniards sent to 
Europe in their returning ships, we have no accounts, and little 
interest seems to have been felt in the result of this method of 
treating the Indians. In some cases, as we know, the red men, 
transplanted to the eastern world, have sickened and died, pining 
for their native forests and hunting-grounds. 

Having decided to steer for the island of Cuba again, while 
anchored in a fine gulf near the western extremity of Jamaica, 
in consequence of his disappointment in finding no gold in the 
latter island, a favorable breeze had sprung up for sailing toward 
the former, and he called this gulf Buentiempo, or Fair Weather. 
The fleet arrived off the coast of Cuba on May i8th, and the 



Irving's "Columbus," vol. i., p. 402 ; " Historia del Almirante," cap. 54 



ON COLUMBUS. 287 

great cape where they first arrived was called Cabo de la Cruz, 
or Cape of the Cross. Having landed and accepted the bounti- 
ful hospitality of the cacique of a large village and its inhabitants, 
the Spaniards learned from their generous entertainers that from 
the time of their former landing and coasting along the island, 
the news of their arrival had spread far and near, and all the 
inhabitants were eager to see these wonderful strangers from the 
clouds. The admiral questioned these Cubans closely as to 
whether this was an island or a continent, and so vague were 
their answers that he could conclude but little from them, though 
they described it as an island of infinite extent, which would 
indicate that such was the native idea of a continent.* 

The fleet sailed the following day still to the west from the last 
point of landing, which the Indians called Macaca, and when it 
arrived at the part where the coast abruptly turned and extended 
many leagues to the northeast, they found themselves in a large 
gulf, and suddenly enveloped in a storm of extraordinary vio- 
lence, in which would have perished the whole fleet but for its 
short duration. The navigation was rendered difficult and dan- 
gerous by innumerable keys and sand-banks, and from these 
were seen in the distance countless small islands, some of which 
were low and flat, others naked and sandy ; some covered with 
verdure, and others elevated and crowned with fine forests. 
His judgment as a navigator would have led him to steer clear 
of such impassable barriers, but his geographical studies and 
theories induced him to recognize in this labyrinth of islands the 
coast of Asia, as described by Mandeville and Marco Polo, who 
portrayed that continent as approachable through an archipelago 
of countless islands. Now surely he was approaching the 
dominions of the Grand Khan. This theory induced him to 
attempt to sail in among them, but he was entangled in an im- 
penetrable network of islands, and navigation was difficult, dan- 
gerous, and even impossible. To add to his embarrassment, the 
weather showed extraordinary features ; but upon close observa- 
tion there was method and regularity in its apparent caprices. 
Columbus was one of the most acute and correct observers of 
all the phenomena of nature, and in this instance he recorded 



* " Historia del Almirante," cap. 54; Cura de los Palacios, cap. 126; Irving's 
"Columbus," vol. i.. p. 404; Dr. Barry's De Lorgues' "Columbus," p. 295. 



288 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

his observations, to the effect that every morning the wind came 
from the east and every evening from the west ; on the approach 
of night the west was heavily clouded, the clouds increasing as 
they approached the zenith and sending forth sheets of lightning, 
with heavy peals of thunder ; but when the moon appeared the 
skies immediately became serene and clear. Fruitful as his mind 
and memory were in selecting names from the calendar of saints, 
the martyrology of the Church, and from her history and devo- 
tions, he was at a loss to find names for such countless groups of 
islands, and he called them all together the Queen's Gardens. 

During the month spent in efforts to explore this dangerous 
labyrinth of islands, Columbus made frequent descents on the 
island of Cuba, for this was the chief object of his study, and 
endeavored to solve the mystery of its geography ; but the 
natives were confused in their accounts, and ignorant of its size 
and surroundings. They had never heard of its having a west- 
ern terminus ; a ship could not reach its extremity in forty 
moons ; but they referred the admiral for more detailed infor- 
mation to a tribe living more to the west, and whose country 
was called Mangon. On inquiring further of the inhabitants of 
Mangon, he was told that they were accustomed to wear flowing 
garments in order to conceal the long tails with which their 
bodies were deformed ; and here again his ready and well-stored 
mind recalled passages from Sir John Mandeville, giving an 
account of some naked tribes in the remote East, who ridiculed 
the practice of some more civilized Orientals, as they alleged, in 
wearing clothes to conceal the defects of their persons, for they 
could not conceive of any other use for clothing. The name of 
Mangon also was believed by him to be a mere corruption of 
Mangi, which was described by his favorite authors as the rich- 
est of the maritime provinces of the Grand Khan. He also re- 
called the Tartars, dressed in flowing robes. They described the 
cacique of Mangon as wearing a long robe, and such may have 
been the effect of this account on the imagination, or it may have 
been reality : but the archer of the expedition saw, while in 
the woods near one of the landings in Cuba, a man clothed in 
white, like the almoner of the Santa Clara ; the number of the 
flowing robes, with the aid of the imagination, was then increased 
to three, and finally to thirt)^ An effort was made to capture 
some of these white-robed people, but the woods were impene- 



ON COLUMBUS. 289 

trable to one exploring expedition, and another was frightened 
off by the recent footprints on the shore of some huge animal 
with claws. It is difficult to say whether the Europeans or the 
Indians were more credulous, or laboring under more amusing 
delusions. Such was the enthusiasm of the admiral, that he 
thought he could double Aurea Chersonesus and the peninsula 
of Malacca, and might emerge into the seas navigated by the 
Arabians and known to the merchants of ancient Rome ; he 
might pass Taprobana, and by pushing forward strike the shores 
of the Red Sea ; thence travel by land to Jerusalem and the 
Holy Land, which his great discoveries would enable him after- 
ward to restore by a crusade to Christendom ; and then again, 
going on ships at Joppa, traverse the Mediterranean and return 
to Spain from the East. It is a familiar fact that Columbus lived 
and died under these impressions, errors in which all the learned 
world were united with him in opinion. Columbus, in the most 
formal manner, took possession of what he was convinced was a 
continent. 

Humboldt, in his political history of the island of Cuba, men- 
tions and comments upon a remarkable method of fishing which 
Columbus saw practised by the Indians of this region. It con- 
sisted in using a small live fish for the purpose of capturing 
larger ones, the former possessing a flat head filled with suckers, 
by means of which, when let loose on the water at the end of a 
long line, it attached itself to the game to be caught with such 
abiding tenacity as to be torn in pieces itself rather than relax its 
hold. It attached itself to the throat of a larofe fish or to the 
under shell of a tortoise, and thus both fishes were drawn in 
together by the fisherman. The Spaniards saw a large tortoise 
caught in this way, and on the coast of Veragua afterward a 
large shark was, in like manner, caught, as is related by Fer- 
nando Columbus. Other navigators have seen the same method 
of fishing practised by the Africans, on the eastern coast of 
Mozambique and at Madagascar, a fact which deepl}- interested 
Humboldt as an evidence of how savages, in different and un- 
connecting parts of the earth, exercised the universal dominion 
of man over the animal kingdom by the same and apparently 
uncommunicated methods.* 



* Humboldt, " Essai Politique," etc., torn, i., p. 364 ; Irving's "Columbus," vol. 
1., p. 408. 



'290 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

These cruises had now exhausted the strength of the sailors 7. 
the provisions were running low, and the crews began to call 
out for a return to Hispaniola. The admiral himself felt more 
than any one else the exhausting strain. He was forced to 
abandon his proposal to sail around the land and return to Spain 
by wa}' of the East.* It was resolved to go no further ; it was 
considered as definitely ascertained that the continent had been 
discovered, and over three hundred leagues of its coasts ex- 
plored. In order to make due and formal record of so important 
a result, the admiral sent a public notary, Fernando Perez de 
Luna, accompanied by four witnesses, to visit each vessel, with 
instructions to ask and receive the opinion of every one on 
board — captain, officers, seamen, and ship-boys — whether they 
entertained a doubt as to the country, or that they had dis- 
covered the continent embracing the Indies and affording a 
passage from the East to Europe and a return to Spain. Al- 
though some had of late affected to question his statements and 
conclusions and to undervalue his discoveries, his sagacity now 
brought them to the avowal, and every man in the fleet solemnly 
signed the documents presented to them by the notar}', and their 
signatures were attested by the four witnesses, declaring their 
conviction in the reality and truth of the admiral's claim as the 
discoverer of the extremities of Asia. The experienced and 
veteran navigators on the fleet, after consulting their maps and 
charts, examining the journals and calculations of the voyage, 
and after mature deliberation, all declared under oath that this 
was their conviction, and that it was not susceptible of a doubt. 
The notary also drew up and certified a formal process, after the 
continental forms then in vogue, embodying the declarations and 
affidavits of all the men and officers. The admiral proclaimed 
severe punishments on such as ever afterward would have the 
perfidy to question or deny what they had now so solemnly 
asserted. 

On June 13th the admiral steered to the southeast, and having 
soon sighted the splendid island now known as the Pines, and 
famous for its mahogany, he called it Evangelista. Having 
anchored and taken a supply of wood and water, he steered to 
the south, intending to seek a direct route by open sea to His- 



* Brownson's Tarducci, vol. i., p. 328. 



I 



ON COLUMBUS. 29 1 

paniola and along the southern shores of Jamaica. But the fleet 
was soon landlocked in the lagoon of Siguan^, the provisions 
were nearly exhausted, the men dismayed ; so he immediately 
returned and endeavored to make his way through the White 
Sea, which now again showed portents most alarming to the 
sailors, such as the abrupt changing of the color of the sea, 
which was at one time green, then black, and now as white as 
milk. After running aground and injuring his ship, which had 
to be dragged by the prow over the shoal, he was happy when 
he extricated his fleet from such dangers. Not only had the 
waters of this strange archipelago changed their color without 
apparent cause, but the animal kingdom, in the deep, clear 
waters of the Cuban coast, had presented most singular changes ; 
for one day the sea was almost covered with tortoises, on another 
day the air was darkened by the flight of cormorants and cranes, 
and the next day the scene was obscured by clouds of butterflies, 
which an evening shower would dispel. On Jul}^ 6th the fleet 
neared the extremity of the gulf near Cape Santa Cruz, and on 
the 7th they landed, and the hungry men enjoyed the unstinted 
hospitality of the cacique, whose subjects brought them utias, 
birds, cassava bread, and delicious fruits. On Sunday the 
admiral had a large cross planted, and mass was solemnly cele- 
brated. Here an incident occurred which goes far to show how 
impressible the Indians were in their religious feelings, and how 
hopeful the effort to convert them to Christianity might have 
been had the cross rather than the sword been the weapon of 
the white man. 

An aged cacique was so deeply impressed with the solemn 
mass he witnessed, that he fully entered into the devotions of 
these celestial worshippers, and he and his people evinced the 
greatest veneration for the imposing service. After the admiral 
had finished his thanksgiving at the end of mass, the venerable 
chief approached him with salutations, presented him with a 
basket of finest fruits, and taking a seat beside him, addressed 
him, through the interpreter Diego, in the following remarkable 
terms : " It is meet and just to render thanks to God for the 
blessings He vouchsafes us. It appears to be your manner, and 
that of your people, thus to render Him homage ; this is all well. 
I have been informed that some time ago you came with your 
forces to these countries, which till then were unknown. Re- 



292 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

member, I beseech and implore you, that the souls of men, on 
leaving the body, enter on two ways : one leading to a noisome 
and dismal place, covered with darkness, prepared for those who 
have been unjust and cruel to their fellow-men ; the other, 
pleasant and delightful, for such as have loved and promoted 
peace among men. Beware, then, if you believe yourself to be 
a mortal man, of doing injury to anybody ; and bear in mind that 
everybody will be rewarded or punished according to his 
works." * 

This pious Indian was moved by the words of Columbus, who 
assured him that his mission to the west was one of peace and 
justice, of subjugation only for the inhuman Caribs, and to 
preach the Gospel of the true religion and of peace. Esteeming 
his visitors as messengers from heaven, the good cacique was 
only prevented from joining the Spaniards by the prayers and 
exhortations of his wife and children. The Spaniards remained 
on this coast several days, took in provisions, wood, and water, 
repaired the ship, and from the frequent offerings of the mass 
here the admiral called the place Rio de la Misa. 

The cacique of Rio de la Misa saw with sorrow the Spaniards 
depart on July i6th ; his counsel and advice to them, inspired as 
they wereby the best sentiments of natural religion, were treasured 
by the admiral, but it seems from subsequent history that the 
Europeans, in their intercourse with the natives, heeded them not. 
The address of the venerable native chief sounds in our ears to 
this day like the last appeal of a doomed race to the justice and 
mercy of their Christian conquerors. Taking with him a young 
Indian from this place, and steering to the south, he avoided the 
Queen's Gardens, and directed his course through the open sea 
for Jamaica and Hispaniola. On getting clear of these danger- 
ous islands the fleet was struck by a violent storm, but by good 
and prompt handling the ships were saved ; but when at length 
they reached Cape Santa Cruz, the admiral's ship was greatly 
damaged. On July 22d they stood for Jamaica, and spent nearly 
a month in endeavoring to explore its coasts, and accepting the 
hospitality of the natives, who had now changed their former 
warlike conduct for that of peace and friendship. The declara- 



* Barry's De Lorgues' " Life of Columbus," p. 298 ; Irving's "Columbus," vol. i., 
p. 426. Other works containing this Indian speech are Herrera, " Historia del Al- 
mirante," Peter Martyr, and Cura de los Palacios. 



ON COLUMBUS. 293 

tions of the admiral that the Spaniards would break the power 
of the Caribs, and give protection to the peaceful islanders, en- 
chained their attention and won their gratitude. The natives 
were lavish in their hospitality. So adverse were the w^inds that 
frequently, on anchoring under the land in the evening, the 
admiral found himself in the same place that he had left the same 
morning. So beautiful and interesting did this fine island appear, 
that he felt strongly inclined to devote some time to the explo- 
ration of its interior ; he landed frequently, and on one oc- 
casion, at one of seven islands in a large bay, received a visit 
of state and ceremony from the cacique, whose people occu- 
pied numerous villages. The chief was attended by a large 
and imposing retinue, offered refreshments to the hungry and 
tired visitors, inquired minutely concerning the Spaniards and 
their country, and expressed special curiosity in relation to 
their immense ships. Columbus, through the Lucayan inter- 
preter, impressed the chief and his people with long and interest- 
ing accounts of the power, riches, and grandeur of Spain, how 
many countries they had conquered, how many others they had 
discovered, and, what most interested the natives, how he had 
defied and defeated the Caribs and captured many of their fiercest 
warriors. 

On the following morning the fleet sailed, but an unexpected 
detention occurred. The chief, accompanied by his queen and 
the princesses, his two daughters, and their retinue came out in 
three large and handsomely painted and carved canoes, and in 
great state, to visit the admiral and his fleet. In the centre was 
the largest canoe, bearing the chief and his family, and in its 
prow stood an Indian official gayly decked in mantle and helmet 
of feathers, with painted face, and bearing in his hands the royal 
banner of white ; other Indian officials, similarly ornamented, 
played on tabors ; others sounded the royal trumpets of fine black 
wood, and the royal family had a body-guard of six natives in 
large hats of white feathers. The cacique was decked in full 
royal dress, consisting of a band of variegated stones and jewels 
around his head, and tastily arranged, and containing in the 
centre at the forehead a large jewel of gold ; his ears had two 
plates of gold suspended from them by rings of green stones ; 
his neck was encircled by a necklace of rare white beads, from 
which hung a plate of inferior gold ; and around his waist was 



294 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

a girdle studded with variegated stones. The queen was simi- 
larly decorated, and wore a small apron of cotton, and cotton 
bands around her arms. The princesses were beautiful in figure 
and countenance, especially the elder, who was about eighteen 
years old ; both were naked, in accordance with their native 
custom, and they wore no ornaments, except the elder, who had 
on a girdle of small stones, from which hung a tablet studded 
with small stones, all tastily arranged on a cotton network. All 
were struck with the modest demeanor of the princesses ; and 
when the visitors were on board the admiral's ship, the latter 
came forth from his devotions to receive his royal guest, and 
the cacique thus addressed him in terms which seemed like an 
invitation from the natives of the new world to all Christendom 
to receive them as fellow- creatures, children of a common Father, 
as members of one human society, and prospective Christians : 
" My friend, I have determined to leave my country, and to 
accompany thee. I have heard from these Indians who are with 
thee of the irresistible power of thy sovereigns, and of the many 
nations thou hast subdued in their name. Whoever refuses 
obedience to thee is sure to suffer. Thou hast destroyed the 
canoes and dwellings of the Caribs, slaying their warriors, and 
carrying into captivity their wives and children. All the islands 
are in dread of thee, for who can withstand thee now that thou 
knowest the secrets of the land and the weakness of the people ? 
Rather, therefore, than thou shouldst take away my dominions, 
I will embark with all my household in thy ships, and will go to 
do homage to thy king and queen, and to behold their country, 
of which thy Indians relate such wonders." Columbus was too 
magnanimous to accept the proposition of the good cacique, 
when he thought of the snares and deceptions to which their 
innocence and simplicity would expose them in a Christian and 
civilized country — a severe but honest reflection upon the more 
favored portion of mankind. He soothed the disappointed feel- 
ings of his royal visitors, and succeeded in persuading them to 
return, though reluctantly, to their own country. It was only 
a question of time how soon the surrender would come ! 

Columbus, on leaving the eastern end of Jamaica, called it Cape 
Farol, though now known as Point Morant, and taking an east- 
erly course, he next day saw in the distance the long peninsula 
of Hispaniola ; he called it Cape San Miguel, but it is now known 



ON COLUMBUS. 295 

as Cape Tiburon. Not knowing then that he was off the island 
of Hayti, or Jamaica, he became aware of the fact in a most 
agreeable way when a cacique coming toward his ship addressed 
him in Spanish, " Admiral, admiral, how could you have con- 
jectured that this cape belonged to Hispaniola ?" These words 
were received with joy by all, for they had cruised for five long 
and dreary months, had encountered many violent storms, and 
felt the exhaustion and fatigues of incessant labor and the pangs of 
hunger ; for not only the men and officers had been reduced in 
their rations to a cracker and a small cup of wine, but, as on all 
other occasions, the admiral had led the way by submitting him- 
self first of all to the same privations and sufferings that his com- 
panions had to endure. Being separated from his two ships, 
Columbus tried in vain to sight them from a high rock near Cape 
Beata, which, from its resemblance to a large ship, he called Alto 
Velo. After the caravels had joined him, he continued his cruise 
along the coast of Hayti, and from his intercourse with the 
natives he learned with satisfaction that all was quiet in His- 
paniola. This news encouraged and justified him, though ever- 
cautious, after he had sailed some distance beyond the river 
Neyoa, to send nine men across the country on foot to Isabella 
to announce his arrival. After encountering another storm, 
witnessing a hostile demonstration from the Indians of the east- 
ern end of the island, who were of Carib descent, spending eight 
days in the shelter under a small island to which he gave the 
name of Saona, and being separated again during the storm from 
his caravels, he finally, in company with the again united fleet, 
reached the eastern end of Hispaniola. Thence he sailed to the 
southeast, and such was the energy and courage of the veteran 
explorer and discoverer, that even now he felt inclined to pro- 
long the voyage to the Caribbean Islands, and perhaps attempt 
their subjugation. But he was exhausted both in mind and body 
by the labors, privations, and anxieties of this protracted voyage, 
by alternate hopes of realizing the discovery of the Continent of 
Asia, and of discovering countries rich in gold and spices, and 
by the disappointments and comparatively small results of such 
brave efforts. His crews were exhausted also, and anxious to 
return to Isabella. He had actually reached a point on the 
island of Cuba whence a boy from the masthead could have 
distinctly seen the open sea on the other side of the island, and 



296 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

thus have solved the all-important question ; but it was at this 
point that the fleet reversed its course, and all acquiesced in the 
theory that they had reached the extremity of Asia. Excitement 
and ambition had sustained the admiral through the vicissitudes 
of this expedition ; but now, this stimulus being removed by his 
near approach to home, his whole being, with all its mental, 
moral, and physical faculties relapsed, and his mind and body fell 
into a singular and profound lethargy. 

This remarkable phenomenon of human nature is spoken of by 
the eulogist of Columbus, the Count de Lorgues, in the follow- 
ing earnest language : " It was just five months since he had 
departed from Hispaniola. For a hundred and fifty consecutive 
days his study of nature, his examination of waters and soils, his 
contemplation of the wonderful works of God, his efforts to rec- 
oncile with each other the contradictory statements of the natives 
to attain some geographical verity, and his prolonged struggle 
against the elements, maintaining his soul, his intellect, his body, 
in triple activity, exhausted all his forces. The feeling of his 
responsibility, and the necessity of constantly directing the navi- 
gation in person himself, were too much for his age, his infirmi- 
ties, his want of nourishment, and his privation of sleep. All his 
organs became simultaneously torpid. His brain, as well as his 
eyes and his limbs, yielded to fatigues that surpassed human 
endurance. There was a total suspension of all his physical and 
moral faculties. It was a state of complete lethargy. Were it 
not for the pulsation of his arteries, the flexibility of his members, 
one would have believed his sublime soul had returned to its 
Creator. ' * * 

Mr. Irving mentions the same singular event in the following 
language : " The very day on which he sailed from Mona he 
was struck with a sudden malady which deprived him of memory, 
of sight, and of all his faculties. He fell into a deep lethargy, 
resembling death itself. His crew, alarmed at this profound 
torpor, feared that death was really at hand. They abandoned, 
therefore, all further prosecution of the voyage, and spreading 
their sails to the east wind, so prevalent in those seas, bore 
Columbus back in a state of complete insensibility to the harbor 
of Isabella, "f 

* De Lorgues' " Columbus." by Dr. Barry, p. 302. 

f Irving's "Columbus," vol i., p. 437. * 



ON COLUMBUS. ' 297 

The colony at Isabella saw with joy the good ship Santa Clara 
enter the port on September 29th, 1494. They had not heard 
an)' tidings of the fleet that sailed out five months before, under 
the admiral, to discover and explore regions of the earth then as 
unknown to civilized man as America had been before Columbus 
discovered it. They had feared that the admiral had fallen a 
victim to his great enterprising spirit and indomitable courage, 
and had perished in his great adventure. But now the chief, 
after five days and nights of a death-like lethargy, was aroused 
to consciousness by the once familiar and ever-affectionate voice 
of his brother Bartholomew. His brother Diego also was there, 
and from his arrival attended at his bedside with untirins: care 
and tenderness. 

Columbus had not seen or heard from Bartholomew for eight 
years, and these were years of unparalleled eventfulness. Hav- 
ing sent him to England to make proposals for a voyage of 
western discovery, on the occasion of his own visit to Portugal, 
in 1485, Columbus, in the mean time, as we have related, secured 
the patronage of Spain. On his voyage to England, Bartholo- 
mew Columbus fell into the hands of a corsair, and plundered of 
all he possessed, he was compelled, like his brother at one time, 
to support himself by making charts and marine maps. It has 
already been mentioned that he had made a voyage to the coast 
of Africa under Bartholomew Diaz, in i486, in the service of the 
King of Portugal, and thus participated in the discovery of the 
Cape of Good Hope. His brother Christopher had met him in 
Lisbon in 1485. It was not until 1493 that he succeeded in reach- 
ing the English court and la3^ing his brother's proposals before 
Henry VII. It is well worthy of note, and certainly much to 
the credit and honor of the English king, that he was pleased 
from the beginning with the plans ot Columbus. It did not re- 
quire long and tedious years of entreaty and waiting to br-ing 
that sovereign's mind to a conviction, as had been the case with 
Portugal and Spain. Bartholomew acquitted himself so well of 
his mission that Henry VII. actually welcomed the project, and 
entered into a preliminary treaty on the subject. It was while 
he was hurrying from England to Spain, as the bearer of these 
negotiations, that Bartholomew heard at Paris of the discovery 
of the new world by his brother, Christopher Columbus, and of 
his- return and triumphal reception by the Spanish sovereigns. 



298 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

The very name of Columbus had now already become famous 
throughout the world. Charles VIII., King of France, was his 
first informant of his brother's great achievement, and of his 
elevation to the position of admiral and viceroy. That sover- 
eign paid him distinguished honor, and presented him with a 
hundred gold crowns for defraying his traveling expenses 
through France. He arrived at Seville not long after the de- 
parture of the admiral on his second voyage. He thence visited 
his sister-in-law. Donna Beatrix Enriquez, at Cordova, where 
the admiral's sons, Diego and Fernando, were at school, and 
brought them to court, where they were all received with kind- 
ness and distinction. The queen retained the youths at court, 
and had every pains taken to prepare them for their functions as 
pages to Prince Juan. The keen eye of King Ferdinand imme- 
diately detected the sterling qualities of Bartholomew Columbus 
and his experiences as a veteran navigator, and, having bestowed 
upon him letters of nobilit3% gave him the command of three 
ships destined to carry provisions to Hispaniola. 

But on arriving at Isabella he again missed the admiral, who 
had not long before sailed on his expedition to Cuba. This 
faithful brother became an important actor in the future events 
and history of the western countries. He was a man of true 
worth. He was candid and truthful, prompt to decide and 
prompt to execute, capable, fearless, and resolute. While his 
manners and address were austere, and even at times somewhat 
abrupt, his generosity was unbounded ; he was above malice or 
resentment ; brave beyond fear, and accessible. His brother 
Diego, on the other hand, was gentle, mild, and sympathetic ; 
as devout as a recluse, studious, retiring, and inexperienced in 
affairs ; and even in his dress he resembled a monk rather than 
a man of the world. But for the wish of the admiral, who was 
the recognized head of the family, he would have retired to a 
cloister or have become a man of study and letters. The admiral 
having but two brothers available, regarded their personal ser- 
vices and counsels as necessary to his great undertakings. While 
Christopher and Diego were men of religious sentiments and 
devout lives, Bartholomew, while a good and earnest Christian, 
was a man of the world, and a master of men and of affairs. 

The cheerful and reassuring influences of the society of his 
two devoted brothers soon restored Columbus to his accustomed 



ON COLUMBUS. 299 

health and spirits. Feeling the necessity of some one to share 
with him the onerous and unceasing cares of administration and 
of responsibility, he appointed Bartholomew to the high and 
responsible position of Adelantado, an office resembling that of 
lieutenant-governor. The advices from the court and the gen- 
eral tenor of the information brought out by his brother greatly 
consoled Columbus for his sacrifices and sufferings, and stimu- 
lated his zeal to continue the humane course adopted toward the 
Indians, his labors for the good of his sovereigns and his country, 
and for the success and permanence of his great enterprise. 

It was not long before the admiral received further advices 
from the Spanish sovereigns of high importance, and of great 
encouragement and support to him — advices showing how fully 
he possessed the confidence and sympathy of the Spanish rulers. 
Antonio Torres arrived with four ships loaded with provisions, 
refreshments, medicines, clothing, and merchandise. The ships 
also brought out a physician and an apothecary, besides me- 
chanics, millers, fishermen, gardeners and farmers ; and the queen 
did not fail to show her delicate regard for her admiral in pro- 
viding especially for his comfort and for the dignity of his office. 
The letters which Torres brought out, and which were dated 
August 1 6th, 1494, conveyed the most satisfactory and comfort- 
ing accounts of the feelings entertained by the sovereigns toward 
himself and his enterprise ; they assured him of their entire satis- 
faction with his conduct, informing him that his representations 
and engagements had all been fulfilled, and showing the greatest 
deference for him and his judgment in requesting him to come 
to Spain and take part in the deliberations going on between 
Spain and Portugal in relation to their respective discoveries 
and dominions, and to assist the same by his counsel ; or, in case 
he could not come, then to send his brother, Don Bartholomew, 
or some other competent and trusty person, to whom he would 
communicate his views and suggestions. The sovereigns ex- 
pressed in their letters the highest interest in the colony, and 
adopting it as a permanent and favorite measure of the crown, 
arranged for a monthly passage or communication between His- 
paniola and the mother country. All the admiral's appointments 
to office were confirmed, all persons in the colony were com- 
manded to obey him and sustain his administration, and orders 
were given the bureaucratic Director-General of Marine to provide 



300 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

all that was needed for the colony. Every solicitude was shown, 
especially by the queen, for imparting the Christian religion to 
the natives, and a special letter was written to Father Boil, 
urging his zeal to activity, stimulating that missionary to exer- 
tion for this great end, and encouraging him to overcome the 
difficulties of the Indian language. A personal letter from the 
queen to Columbus, dated August i6th, 1494, as the Count de 
Lorgues writes, " was particularly calculated to console the 
admiral, and refresh his soul with its sweet sympathies." * x\s 
the admiral was aware that the tongue of detraction had already 
begun its efforts to undermine his influence and standing at court, 
these just and noble communications and commendations from 
his sovereigns went far to sustain his efforts for the glory and 
aggrandizement of his adopted country. 

Columbus was prompt in making due acknowledgments of 
the royal missive which had been received in the colonies, and 
in defending himself and his administration from the aspersions 
of his enemies. He would have returned to Spain himself to 
make his own vindication in person, but he was in too feeble a 
state of health to undertake the voyage, and his brother, Don 
Bartholomew, was needed now more than ever in the then dis- 
tracted state of the colony, which we are now about to relate, to 
manage and direct affairs with his strong arm and resolute will. 
He therefore sent his brother, Don Diego, who, besides the 
many other commissions he received from the admiral, was 
specially charged with communicating the admiral's views in 
relation to the geographical line which was destined to separate 
the dominions of Spain and Portugal from each other. It was 
thus that he hastened the return of the ships to Spain under 
Torres, bearing not only the most convincing proofs of the value 
of the great discovery he had made, but also carrying all the 
gold he could collect, besides specimens of other useful and 
valuable metals, of the fruits and plants of the new world, and 
other proofs of the riches of the western islands. 

But there was one portion of the return cargo which Columbus 
sent to Spain which has been made the subject of animadversion 
on the part of some historians, and of excuse or extenuation on 



* De Lorgues' " Columbus," by Dr. Barry, p. 313 ; " Documentos Diplomaticos," 
Num. Ixxx. ; MuSos, " Historia del Nuevo Mundo," lib. iv., § 24. 



ON COLUMBUS. 30I 

the part of others. Anxious to make as valuable and remuner- 
ative a return to his sovereigns for their great outlays in the new 
world as possible, he sent back in the fleet under Torres about 
live hundred Indian prisoners, who, in accordance with the prac- 
tice of the age and country, were intended to be sold into slavery in 
order to reimburse the royal exchequer. Mr. Irving has justly said 
that " it is painful to find the brilliant renown of Columbus sullied 
by so foul a stain. The customs of the times, however, must be 
pleaded in his apology." Then, after giving instances wherein 
Spain or Portugal had indulged in the traffic in slaves, either in 
Africa or in the wars against the Moors in Spain, he says : 
" These circumstances are not advanced to vindicate, but to pal- 
liate the conduct of Columbus. He acted but in conformity to 
the customs of the times, and was sanctioned by the example of 
the sovereigns under whom he served."* The Count de 
Lorgues, however, mentions this circumstance in a different 
Hght, and says : " As the ships brought by Torres contained a 
large number of rebel Indian prisoners, captured with arms in 
their hands, Don Juan de Fonseca received orders to have them 
sold in the markets of Andalusia." And again : " Although an 
ordinance had been expedited for the sale of the prisoners, ac- 
cording to the custom that then prevailed in regard to infidels 
and idolaters, still a scruple arose in the mind of Isabella. The 
enterprise of the discovery having, as a prime object, the con- 
version of natives who did not know Christ, the queen consid- 
ered within herself whether she should not treat these people as 
future children of the Church, and whether it was not contrary 
to the Gospel to enslave them ? She commanded that the pris- 
oners should be carried back to Hispaniola, and all set free, with 
the exception of nine, who were destined by the admiral to serve 
as interpreters, and who were to remain some time in Castile to 
learn the language." f But Las Casas, the illustrious Bishop of 
Chiapa, who was the defender of the natural rights of the Indians, 
and the untiring opponent of the unjust policy of enslaving them, 
also excuses or palliates the action of Columbus on this occasion. 
" If," says he, " those pious and learned men, whom the sover- 
eigns took for guides and instructors, were so ignorant of the 



* Irving's " Columbus," vol. ii., p. 40. 

■j- Barry's De Lorgues' " Columbus," p. 330. 



302 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

injustice of this practice, it is no wonder that the unlettered 
admiral should not be conscious of its impropriety." * 

Having in a previous page mentioned that Ojeda was left in 
command of Fort St. Thomas, and that Margarite had set forth 
with the army to make an exploration and military reconnoissance 
of the interior of the island of Hispaniola, it now remains to re- 
late how a Spanish soldier and gentleman by birth disgraced his 
profession and dishonored his birthright. So also it has been 
mentioned that Father Boil's lukewarmness as a missionary had 
demoralized the missions, and his disloyalty to his civil governor 
had fomented disaffection in the colony. It is sad, even at this 
remote day, to record in our pages how so high an ecclesiastic 
finally deserted the vineyard of the Lord, which he had been 
sent to till. These two unworthies naturally made common 
cause, and added to their misconduct the base crime of slander 
against their civil governor and commander. 

The exalted and well-considered instructions which Columbus 
gave to Margarite on leaving Isabella for the exploration of the 
island of Cuba, if observed, would have sufficed to pilot the 
affairs of Hispaniola in peace and prosperity ; but that soldier 
reversed in his conduct every order he received from his com- 
mander. He did not commence by exploring the rugged moun- 
tains of Cibao, as the admiral had ordered, but he preferred to 
loiter and luxuriate in the generous and bountiful hospitality of 
the Vega. Yielding, besides, to unbridled sensuality, discipline 
was relaxed, debauchery and riot prevailed throughout the army, 
and the commander, his officers, and his soldiers, instead of hold- 
ing the veneration of the natives as visitors from heaven, won 
and deserved their contempt and hatred as common ruffians. 
The provisions of the villages were wantonly consumed and 
wasted, supplies became scarce, and were justly withheld by the 
Indians. The Spaniards ruthlessly seized what they wanted, 
without the honesty of making compensation. The lust for gold 
led to countless acts of what the statutes of civilized countries 
call robbery, and the lust for women led to the most outrageous 
acts of injustice, insult, and oppression. The guests of late now 
became the masters and oppressors of the -land. A letter of 
reprimand and orders to proceed in his reconnoissance of the 



Las Casas, " Historia Ind.," torn, i., cap. 122, MS. 



ON COLUMBUS. 303 

island, as directed by the admiral, which he received from Don 
Diego Columbus and the council at Isabella, was treated by this 
proud outlaw as an insult to a Spanish gentleman of ancient 
lineage, and in this he was sustained by the proud hidalgos and 
cavaliers and by the adventurers of the colony. This was an 
unpardonable affront to a Spanish gentleman from a foreigner 
and an upstart. These vicious elements now combined together, 
not only against the authority of the lieutenant-governor and 
council, but also against the government of the absent viceroy. 
So far from restraining their excesses, when admonished by Don 
Diego and the council, Margarite and his soldiers, as Count de 
Lorgues remarks, ' ' considered that they did the Indians much 
honor in taking from them their wives, their provisions and their 
gold, and in consuming in some days the provisions that would 
have sufficed for the Indians the third of a year." Margarite 
actually cast off all authority, and acted as though he were the 
superior of the lieutenant-governor and the council. He went 
to Isabella and departed whenever it suited him, and took no 
notice of Don Diego Columbus or of the council. After spread- 
ing ruin in the Royal Vega and among its inhabitants, he re- 
paired to Isabella, and there formed a cabal, of which the dissi- 
pated and arrogant cavaliers were members. He and his con- 
federates found a welcome colleague in Father Boil, and they 
concerted together to seize the ships which Bartholomew Colum-' 
bus had brought out, and return to Spain ; the one deserting his 
post, the other abandoning his flock. Having taken possession 
of the ships, Margarite and Father Boil sailed for Spain, hoping 
to justify their misconduct through their influence at court, and 
that of Bishop Fonseca, and by maligning the characters and 
administration of Columbus and his brothers. Margarite is sup- 
posed to have dreaded the return of the admiral from Cuba, and 
the punishment he so justly deserved ; and he is thought also to 
have desired relief, through medical aid in Spain, for a loath- 
some disease brought on by his excessive lusts, and which was 
then new and comparatively unknown. That Columbus, so 
marked by his respect to the clergy, should have incurred, in the 
conscientious discharge of his duty, the unjust animosity of one 
so prominent and influential as Father Boil, was a severe incre- 
ment to his load of sorrows. But if, in the necessities of the 
colon}-, he was the first to impose upon himself the regimen of 



304 



OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 



short rations, surely the example of the chief pastor of the colony 
was indispensable to the success of the rule. But unfortunately 
Father Boil thought differently, and hence his resentment, 
already kindled by the admiral's humane treatment of the natives, 
now culminated in open rebellion. Their calumnies at court 
met with support from Fonseca and other unworthy officials and 
enemies of Columbus, and received reinforcement from proud 
and offended cavaliers and hidalgos and their relatives at home. 
As Mr. Irving writes, " The first general and apostle of the 
new world thus setting the flagrant example of unauthorized 
abandonment of their posts." And the Count de Lorgues says : 
" They thus schemed their departure, seized on some vessels 
that were anchored in the port, and basely fled as true deserters. 
Several religious, whom the attraction of novelty induced to 
follow Father Boil to the Indies, not being able to become used 
to a mode of life for which they were not destined, followed 
him in his cowardly desertion." This zealous and intelligent 
writer attributes this sad result to the fact that Father Boil was 
not, in fact, the one selected by the Church or the Pope for this 
mission, but by accident or intrigue, as already related, he was 
substituted for the Franciscan Father Boyle. 

In deserting his command, Margarite did not even designate 
another to take his place, and the army lost all organization, 
became split up into bands of marauders, plunderers, and 
seducers, depriving the natives of their property, their homes, 
and their wives. Even these outrages were accompanied with 
unnecessar}' and wanton cruelties and insults. The poor Indians 
had submitted to every wrong from their celestial guests, but 
now, seeing the power of the Spaniards broken by their dis- 
organization and divisions, and resenting the wrongs they had 
heaped on them, the hospitality of hosts became converted into 
a bitter and relentless hatred. Vengeance took the place of 
friendship. The fortress of La Navidad had been destroyed — 
why might not that of St. Thomas be wiped out ? 

The Carib chief, Caonabo, was the most inveterate enemy ot 
the Spaniards, and now the Kings of Xaragua, of Higuey, and 
of the Vega united with the fierce chief of Maguana in a con- 
spiracy to destroy the Spaniards and free the island from these 
cruel and oppressive foes. The mild and gentle Guacanagari. 
suspected by them to be friendly to the Spaniards, was not taken 



ON COLUMBUS. 305 

into the alliance,, and he was treated as an enemy of his country. 
Endeavoring to supply the place of arms and skill by numbers, 
Caonabo appeared before Fort St. Thomas with ten thousand 
naked warriors, armed with bows and arrows, clubs and lances 
hardened with fire. Having reconnoitred the fort, he expected 
to take it by surprise, by a secret march through the forests ; he 
had, no doubt, taken a leading part in the massacre of the garrison 
■of Fort La Navidad. But Alonzo de Ojeda was a foe such as 
Indian hordes and unclad warriors had never encountered. He 
was vigilant and wily, brave and fearless, profoundly versed and 
practised in all the arts and stratagems of war. He was intrepid 
and resistless in the open field, headlong in violent warfare ; he 
was subtle in feints and ambuscades, and, whenever he was 
engaged in hostilities with the heathen, he was inspired with 
■extraordinary religious zeal and apparently supernatural motive 
and courage. A veteran in Moorish campaigns, he had never 
received a wound, and now it seemed to him and to his fol- 
lowers that he was under a special heavenly protection, and was 
invulnerable. His exploits had been recorded in many a mar- 
vellous chronicle of prowess, and even his personal strength, so 
out of all proportion to his small stature, inspired unwonted 
terror, and achieved prodigious feats of valor and success. So 
thorough a soldier could not be taken at disadvantage by barbar- 
ous foes. The cautious and wily Caonabo was surprised, after 
his secret march through the dense forests, on arriving at the 
fort, to find the Spanish chieftain at the head of his garrison 
drawn up in the tower, sharply watchful and ready for the fray. 
The fortress was by its location well fortified also by nature. 

Assault by untutored savage warriors was fruitless, and 
Caonabo resorted to a siege in order to reduce his formidable 
foes by starvation. Skilfully distributing his men through the 
neighboring forests, and occupying every approach to the fort, 
the cacique and his colleagues, in a siege of thirty days, reduced 
the Spaniards to the point of starvation. But Ojeda and his 
veterans displayed prodigies of valor, and by dauntless sorties 
and reckless attacks, from day to day, decimated the ranks of 
the dusky besiegers ; and while every vSpanish soldier killed his 
■dozens, their intrepid leader slew with his own arm and trusty 
weapon still greater numbers of the undisciplined foes. The 
Indians were appalled at seeing their arrows fall harmless at the 



306 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

feet of the invulnerable commander of the fort. They were un- 
used to such continued military service as they were then under- 
going-, and the undisciplined ranks of the cacique were thinned 
by daily returns of his subjects and allies to their homes. Caonabo 
conceived an unbounded wonder and admiration for Ojeda. He 
was forced to yield the struggle to so dauntless a foe. He now 
began to bethink him of other and more promising efforts to 
destroy the hated invaders of his domains. 

An incident is here related in Spanish-American chronicles to 
illustrate the generous and heroic character of Ojeda in this 
noted siege. While the garrison was so severely pressed for 
food, a friendly Indian found a way of entering the tower, 
bringing with him a pair of pigeons as a present to Ojeda ; but 
that gallant chieftain saw how his comrades eyed with languish- 
ing and hungry eyes those rare and delicious birds. He received 
them from the hands of the Indian only to give them flight and 
liberty from a window of the tower, and turning to his men, he 
said : " It is a pity that here is not enough to give us all a meal, 
but I cannot consent to feast while the rest of you are starving." 

Returning with disappointment and wounded pride from his 
disastrous attack on Fort St. Thomas, Caonabo made a secret 
reconnoissance of the city of Isabella, and thought how easy it 
would be for the natives in countless hordes to rush upon and 
annihilate the feeble colony. So exasperated were the Indians 
throughout the island at the wrongs they had endured at the 
hands of Margarite, that the Kings of Xaragua, Higuey, and 
the Vega came readily into his proposals for a military alliance, 
having for its object the extirpation of the Spaniards. They were 
zealously supported by their respective tribes. Now was the 
time for Guacanagari, the suspected cacique of Marien and the 
trusted friend of Columbus, to prove the truth or falsehood of 
the charges against his loyalty and friendship for the admiral 
and his people. This chief was equally suspected of disloyalty 
to their cause by the other Indian kings, and when his aUiance 
was now sought by them for a united attack upon the Spaniards, 
he refused to join them. He continued in his own dominions to 
resist their entreaties and threats, and though greatly impover- 
ished, he entertained and fed one hundred Spanish soldiers quar- 
tered upon him with cheerful and unstinted hospitality. His 
loyalty to the Spaniards was fully vindicated, and now gave 



ON COLUMBUS. 307 

comfort to his friend, the admiral, in the midst of his cares and 
growing adversities. The three allied chiefs turned their resent- 
ment upon Guacanagari, and now Caonabo and his brother-in- 
law, Behechio, invaded his dominions, killing one of his wives, 
the beautiful Catalina, who had fied to his side from the Gracious 
Mary by casting herself into the water and swimming ashore, car- 
rying another into captivity, and inflicting upon him many wrongs 
and outrages. He stood faithful to the admiral, and while his do- 
minions presented a barrier between the Spanish settlement and its 
gathering foes, his friendly tribe assisted the Spaniards all in their 
power. The cacique Guatiguana, on the other hand, massacred 
ten Spaniards who were on the banks of the Grand River, and 
burned the hospital building, containing forty patients and con- 
valescents, while the Spaniards were killed in other parts of the 
island. 

The faithful Guacanagari lost no time in seeking the admiral, 
who was still on his bed of sickness, and who even there had 
received tidings of an unpleasant character in relation to the 
movements of the other caciques. Accounts of the misconduct 
of Margarite and his men, and of the consequent enmity and 
hostile movements and plots of the caciques, reached him from 
every quarter. Instead of remaining at their posts of duty, the 
commander of the army and the superior of the missions had 
deserted the scenes of danger and disorder, of which they had 
been instigators ; had gone to court falsely to throw upon the 
admiral the blame of disasters which they had conspicuously 
caused, and to malign him whom they had already wronged, 
instead of remaining to repair the injuries inflicted upon the 
island by their own misconduct.* 

The trusting nature of Columbus, more than ever conspicuous 
in such trials, felt consolation in the now vindicated loyalty of 
Guacanagari. He received that unfortunate chief to his renewed 
confidence and friendship, and extended to him the much-needed 
protection he sought against the hostility of the other caciques. 
A distinguished trait in the character of Columbus was, as we 
have seen, his ability and energy in rising from the bed of illness 
or from misfortunes to vigorous action. This he had already 

* The authors consulted in this and several preceding pages have been Oviedo, 
"Historia del Almirante," Herrera, Irving, Count de Lorgues, as translated by Dr. 
Barry, Tarducci, Fiske and Winsor. 



308 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

done when he saw his brothers at his side, and had dispatched 
the ships to Spain with his brother Diego, commissioned to rep- 
resent him at court, and in following up these measures with a 
decided policy, and its execution toward the combined Indian 
conspiracy against Spanish authority in the new world. He 
deliberately and sternly planned the breaking of the caciques* 
league against him, and this he resolved to undertake by hand- 
ling the members of the league separately. Having heard that 
Captain Luiz d'Artiaga had become closely besieged in the for- 
tress of Magdalena by the treacherous cacique of Grand River, 
Guatiguana, he sent two detachments of soldiers, one of which 
attacked that chief suddenly, and the other simultaneously re- 
lieved the fort ; and then the united forces overran the cacique's 
country and inflicted severe punishment upon him and his people, 
by defeating them in battle, killing many of his men, and captur- 
ing many others, the cacique himself barely escaping with his 
life. Then, remembering that Guatiguana was a tributary chief 
to Guarionex, the King of the Royal Vega, Columbus got the 
latter to come to see him, and by skilful diplomacy secured his 
reconciliation. Guarionex was not only pacified by the admiral, 
but he also allied his family to the admiral's household by the 
marriage of his daughter to the Indian interpreter, Diego Colon, 
and consented to the erection of Fort Conception within his own 
dominions. Little did the unsuspecting natives dream that by 
such concessions they were forging the instruments that were to 
complete their subjugation and finally their destruction. 

Having thus secured the friendship, wi^ich was equivalent to 
the subjugation of the lord of the Royal Vega, Columbus now 
seriously considered how he should attempt the destruction of 
the native league, which consisted of Caonabo, his brother-in- 
law, Behechio, and the King of Higuey. Caonabo was the soul 
of the coalition. While pondering what should be his next step, 
Columbus was suddenly surprised and relieved by a bold and 
characteristic offer of Alonzo de Ojeda, which was nothing less 
than to capture that formidable chief by stratagem, and deliver 
him alive into the admiral's hands. Plunging into the thick 
forest with ten selected men, bold, fearless, and thoroughly 
armed, and after traversing sixty leagues of the territory of 
Caonabo, Ojeda and his party came upon the Lord of the Golden 
House in one of his largest and most populous towns, and sur- 



ON COLUMBUS. 309 

rounded by his warrior subjects. The wily Spaniard, no less 
skilled at strategy than in open warfare, approached the savage 
chief with a show of profound respect, paying him royal honors, 
and presenting messages and credentials from the admiral, whose 
Indian name was Guamiquina, signifying Chief of the Spaniards. 
In the name of the admiral he tendered the chief valuable pres- 
ents, and so fascinated the savage by his gallantry, his personal 
strength, and his skill at all athletic exercises, that he and 
Caonabo became the best of friends. Ojeda was perfectly at 
home and at his ease in accepting the unbounded though rude 
hospitality of the descendants of the Caribs. The Spaniard in- 
vited and urged Caonabo to repair to Isabella for the purpose of 
making an alliance of friendship and mutual aid with the great 
Spanish chieftain. The most powerful argument he used was 
an offer to make the savage a present of the chapel-bell at 
Isabella, which the Indians thought was gifted with the power 
of speech, as they saw the steel-clad warriors from the skies obey 
its voice and repair to the chapel for prayer at its bidding. 

When this wonderful present was offered to Caonabo, who 
had never seen but had heard the bell sounding the summons to 
mass and vespers while he was stealthily reconnoitring the city, 
the vain chief was captivated ; such a peace-offering was over- 
whelming. Having consented to accompany Ojeda and his war- 
riors to Isabella, he surprised them by presenting himself as 
ready for the march accompanied by a numerous body of armed 
warriors, shrewdly parrying the questions and allaying surprise 
of the Spaniards at such warlike preparations for a peaceful mis- 
sion by answering that a chieftain of his power must travel in a 
manner worthy of his dignity; While the Spaniards were them- 
selves planning treachery, they feared it at the hands of their 
intended victim. Ojeda was the superior of Caonabo in duplicity, 
as he was at open warfare. Not satisfied with alluring the brave 
native king by the prospective sounds of the promised bell, which 
were in this instance used to summon him to an inevitable fate, 
Ojeda now dazzled the eyes of the barbarian with a pair 
of polished manacles, which he treacherously represented to be 
innocent ornaments intended as another and immediate present 
for the chief. Leading the credulous Indian into a snare, the 
latter found himself manacled with the glittering steels, and 
before his warriors were aware of the treachery, or could rush 



3IO OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

to his rescue, he was hurried forward at a rapid pace on one of 
the swiftest Spanish horses a captive and a prisoner to the city 
of Isabella. 

Columbus accepted the captive at the hands of Ojeda with 
expressions of pleasure, and though he treated him with kind- 
ness, he caused him to be kept a prisoner in chains and confined 
in one of the rooms of his own house. Caonabo to the last ex- 
hibited the utmost haughtiness, and a regal refusal to succumb to 
the vicero3^ While for Ojeda, who had had the courage and 
strategy to come to his home and make him a prisoner, he mani- 
fested the utmost respect and admiration, for the admiral, 
who, as he said, had never dared to attempt in person such a 
feat, he manifested the utmost indifference, never even noticing 
his presence, or rising, as others did, on his entrance. In 1496, 
on the fleet which carried Columbus back to Spain, Caonabo was 
a passenger and a prisoner, for the admiral regarded him as too 
dangerous a personage to leave in Hispaniola, where his numer- 
ous subjects might at any time attempt his recapture. It is also 
said that he had hopes of seeing the barbarian's conversion to 
Christianity effected by his stay in Spain, and that he had prom- 
ised liberty and their return to Hispaniola to Caonabo and his 
brother. On the voyage to Spain several of the Amazons inhab- 
iting the island of Guadeloupe were taken as prisoners on board 
the ships, and the female cacique of these warrior women con- 
ceived a desperate attachment for the haughty and noble 
Caonabo, so much so that when the prisoners were returned to 
their homes she would not leave the famous Carib chief ; but, 
having heard and sympathized with his history, she preferred to 
share his fortunes, keeping with her also her young daughter. 
Caonabo was proud and gloomy to the last, and died at sea 
before the termination of the voyage of a broken heart.* 

The treacherous seizure and imprisonment of Caonabo aroused 
his subjects, and indeed most of the savages of the island. That 
chieftain had three brothers, and these united their efforts to 
raise throughcmt the land a large army, and succeeded in bring- 
ing into the field seven thousand warriors, in hopes of first cap- 



* Las Casas, Herrera, Fernando Pizarro, Charlevoix and Peter Martyr ; Oviedo, 
" Cronico de los Indias," lib. iii., cap. i. ; " Historia del Almirante," cap. 63 ; Cura 
de los Palacios, cap. 131 ; Irving's "Columbus," vol. ii., pp. 37, 81 ; Barry's trans- 
lation of Count de Lorgues' " Columbus," p. 323. 



ON COLUMBUS. 311 

turing Fort St. Thomas and its garrison, now again under the 
command of Ojeda, and then exterminating the cruel intruders 
from Hispaniola. iManicatex, the ablest and most warlike of the 
chieftain's army, assumed command, and when Ojeda, at the 
head of his mail-clad cavaliers on horseback, rushed intrepidly 
to the attack, though a mere handful of men against seven thou- 
sand, the Indian general showed military skill in arranging his 
men in battahons, and using them at first with true generalship. 
But the rude warriors almost immediately became panic-stricken 
and fled from the field, while the Spaniards slaughtered many 
and captured great numbers. The brother of Caonabo fell val- 
iantly fighting for his country and his race.* 

The admiral, though still feeble from his recent illness, decided 
to take the field in person, at the head of his entire military 
force, and strike a final blow for the subjugation of the natives. 
The defeat of Manicatex by Ojeda had not broken the spirit of 
the natives, nor softened their determination to defend their 
homes and country, and to revenge the captivity of Caonabo. 
That Indian warrior, who had now succeeded to the throne of his 
imprisoned brother, his brothers, and the favorite wife of Caonabo, 
the beautiful Anacaona, the sister of Behechio, all united their 
influence and their efforts to raise the whole population of the 
island to arms. They succeeded in bringing out an army of a 
hundred thousand men, if such an assemblage of naked and 
undisciplined savages could be called an army. Yet when the 
scouts came in from a reconnoitring tour, they represented the 
small but intrepid Spanish army as resembling only a sheaf of 
corn, which the natives by their numbers could easily surround 
and destroy. Manicatex divided his immense forces into five 
divisions, so that the Spanish handful of men, when they marched 
into the Vega, would become surrounded and stifled ; but the 
superior forces of the Spaniards had no difficulty in overcoming 
this immense army of barbarians, which fell into panic and dis- 
order before the impetuous charge of Ojeda at the head of his 
cavalry, and fled precipitately. The hordes of barbarians van- 
ished before the irresistible attack of disciplined troops as mists 
in the air are dispelled before the advancing sun. The poor 

* Oviedo, " Cronico de los Indias," lib. iii., cap. i. ; Charlevoix, " Historia de St. 
Domingo," lib. ii., p. 131 ; Irving's " Columbus," vol. ii., p. 39 ; Barry's translation 
of De Lorgues' " Columbus," p. 323. 



312 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

Indians submissively and fearfully sued from the rocks and 
precipices, to which they had fled, for mercy. Many were killed 
and many more were wounded. The allied army was completely 
routed. Guarionex, the mild and pacific cacique of the Vega, 
whom the other chiefs had induced to join the confederacy, 
made his peace at once with the Spaniards, and accepted the 
yoke. Manicatex, himself the commander-in-chief, was com- 
pelled to sue for peace, and he, together with a nephew of 
Caonabo, was sent to join that chieftain in his prison at Isabella, 
and subsequently in his banishment from his country. Unlike 
him, they survived the voyage to Spain, but in this, as in many 
other instances, we have no record of their subsequent fate. 

While Columbus was following up his victory by marching 
through the most accessible parts of the island, the unhappy 
Guacanagari, who had joined the Spanish forces against his own 
race, though his services were of little use, retired now to his 
dominions with the execrations of the other caciques and their 
people, who never forgave his desertion of their cause. The 
sequel will show that he gained little by his pliant submission. 
Considerable numbers of native prisoners were led to Isabella. 
While the caciques made their submission, Behechio, with sad 
but unavailing pride, retired to his more remote and inaccessible 
dominions, carrying with him his sister, the beautiful Anacaona, 
the favorite wife of Caonabo, to whom he was, in adversity as in 
former and better days, most devoted, and who seems to have 
survived the fate of her husband and the liberties of her race, to 
take a conspicuous and active part at a later day, though an 
unavailing one, to revenge the former and to restore the latter. 
She was a queen by nature, as well as by birth and recognition, 
for she won the love and obedience of her brother's subjects, 
and shared with him the actual government of his people. 

Europeans have always, as we have seen, regarded the heathen 
and undiscovered lands and peoples of the earth as subject to 
lawful invasion and subjugation by their more civilized Christian 
neighbors ; and yet they found it convenient, when an object was 
to be attained, to apply to their relations with the heathens the 
very principles of public and international law which would 
have secured, from the beginning, to the invaded and subjugated 
peoples a perfect protection from such a fate. Acting upon this 
principle, Columbus, who regarded himself as forced into the 



ON COLUMBUS. 313 

war by the combination of the caciques and their peoples, sought 
now to avail himself of the rights of a conqueror, which consist 
not only in imposing the political yoke of the victors upon the 
vanquished, but also in making the latter pay the expenses of the 
war. It was thus that he decided to subject the whole native 
population of Hispaniola to the payment of tribute to their 
Spanish conquerors. The royal treasury had suffered much 
from the first expedition and in the subsequent enterprises of the 
admiral in founding a Spanish empire in the new world. How 
could he reimburse the exchequer ? How could he give the lie 
to the malicious falsehoods of the assay ist, Firmin Cado, Pedro 
Margarite, and Father Boil at court, that the country was barren 
of precious metals ? The tribute should be imposed and col- 
lected in gold itself ; this was the crucial test. The admiral, 
therefore, in order to make returns to his country and sover- 
eigns, and even to promote his remoter but yet cherished 
schemes for redeeming the Holy Land, imposed upon the natives 
of Hispaniola heavy and onerous tributes in gold. Every in- 
habitant of the Vega and of Cibao over fourteen years of age 
was required to pay to the receiver of the royal revenues a 
measure of a Flemish hawk's bell of gold-dust or grains every 
three months. An individual tribute, much greater in amount, 
was imposed upon all the caciques ; but Manicatex, for his ac- 
tivity in the war, was compelled, in addition, to pay an amount 
of gold equal to one hundred and fifty pesos of Spanish coin. 
Where gold did not exist the individual was to pay instead a 
tribute of twenty five pounds of cotton every three months. A 
certificate of the payment thus made into the royal treasury con- 
sisted of a copper medal, which was hung around the Indian's 
neck, and those not carrying the medal were liable to be arrested 
and thrown into prison. Thus the yoke of servitude and of 
tribute was consummated in the emblematic yoke which the 
taxpayers were compelled to wear around their necks. 

The late King of the Royal Vega, for his sceptre had passed 
to Ferdinand and Isabella, besought the admiral to accept from 
his fertile country a tribute of grain for the food of the Spaniards, 
as the Vega possessed little gold, and his subjects were not 
skilled at gathering it in the river beds ; but as the admiral 
knew that gold alone would meet the expectations of his sover- 
eign, he refused the offer, though it would have secured the cul- 



314 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

tivation by the natives of a large belt of rich territory, stretching 
from sea to sea. Such was the necessity, that scanty grains of 
gold were preferred to the culture of nature's bountiful treasures 
of the soil. So great was the difficulty with the poor inhabitants 
in toiling for three months in unsuccessful efforts to gather the 
coveted and glittering particles, that Columbus became satisfied 
with half a hawk's bell of gold as the tribute in such cases. 

The island of Hispaniola being now effectually conquered, and 
the natives now wearing the tribute-medal on their necks, the 
country became studded with fortifications to maintain the Span- 
ish authority, keep the Indians in subjection, and enforce the 
collection of the tribute. Fort St. Thomas was put in a state of 
impregnable strength ; so also was the fort at Isabella ; and new 
fortresses were erected at Magdalena, in the Vega ; another on 
the site of the town of Santiago and near the Estencia, on the 
Yaqui, called Santa Catalina ; another on the banks of the river 
Yaqui, called Esperanza, and near the Pass of the Hidalgos, now 
called the Pass of the Marney ; and, largest of all. Fort Concep- 
tion, in the heart of the Vega ; thus giving to the Spaniards the 
complete mastery over the dominions of Guarionex. The bur- 
dens now imposed upon the Indians, their sufferings under the 
Spanish yoke, and the tribute wrung from them gave voice and 
force to the plaint in the sympathetic heart of Las Casas, the 
tenderest of lamentations. The Count de Lorgues and Dr. 
Barry, apologetically yet justly casting the blame upon Spanish 
policy and necessities, exclaim : " But it was not grain that 
Castile wanted ; King Ferdinand demanded gold, and not small 
grain !" * 

The advent of the Spaniards had produced great changes in 
the condition of a peaceful population, from time immemorial 
securely reposing in peace in their own homes, yielding scarce- 
ly a nominal service or tribute to their own chiefs, enjoying 
the generous and unstinted abundance which nature, soil, and 
climate spontaneously yielded, and, after each day of dream}- 
idleness and blissful enjoyment of life, reposing sweetly at night, 
with no care for the morrow. The native sovereigns of Hayti 
exercised merely a fraternal sway over their tribes, their only 



* Las Casas, " Historia Ind.," lib. i., cc. 105-10; Irving's "Columbus," vol. iii., 
p. 51 ; Dr. Barry's translation of De Lorgues' " Columbus," p. 326. 



ON COLUMBUS. 315 

personal perquisites being a few brief rights of hunting and fish- 
ing, a small quantity of cassava or cotton, or, in lieu thereof, 
service in war. The fruits, vegetables, and grain which consti- 
tuted their food made the Indians healthy, agile, and comely, 
but they imparted no robust strength ; labor was as unsuited to 
their condition as it was unnecessary ; Nature, in her gentle way, 
supplied their wants ; though indolent, they were cheerful and 
mirthful ; the daily courses of the sun and moon were followed by 
them with successive slumbers, feasts, games, songs, and dances ; 
traditional stories of personal exploits and character were their 
only literature, and their wandering singers or rustic minstrels 
dimly resembled the troubadours of Provence, while their story- 
tellers recalled the scalds and sagamen of Iceland. The time, 
action, and sounds of dancing feet supplied the place of the trouba- 
dour's harp ; the professional newsmongers resembled in the 
abstract only the vocation of our modern newspapers. Anacao- 
na, whose name beautifully signified " the Golden Flower," was 
their Homer, their Cid, their Ossian, or their Chaucer all combined. 
Carib adventures and the dark works of sorcerers formed the 
staple of their heroic poetry. The songs of the island, or areytos, 
were merely traditional poems which living poets recited to 
the music of the feet or the sound of the simplest drums. There 
were traditions among them which had their sources undoubt- 
edly in the great fountains of original and Mosaic history The 
garden, the flood, the redemption were dimly shadowed in their 
racial and unwritten histories. But — ominous tradition ! — the}' 
had received from their ancients and forefathers a prophecy that 
their peaceful and blissful land would some day be invaded by 
strangers clad in armor and flowing robes, bearing swords capa- 
ble of cleaving a man in twain at a single stroke, and who would 
impose a galling yoke upon their necks. Were these the present 
steel-clad warriors and horse-mounted conquerors, with viceroy 
and priest, all clad in flowing robes, that had exacted the tribute, 
transported their chiefs beyond the seas, and erected frowning 
fortresses on every available hill, at every pass, and on the banks 
of once peaceful rivers ? Were they from heaven ? Would they 
ever return to their homes in the clouds ? Or would they build 
for themselves earthly homes, covet and seize the native gold, 
take to themselves native wives, and make slaves of the free 
children of nature ? 



3l6 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

The days of Indian dreams were passed. Traditions had 
become history. The native areytos now mournfully sang the 
story of the Indian subjugation. It is the decree of human de- 
velopment, that wherever the foot of civilized man is planted 
barbarism must yield to civilization ! Oh, how dearly purchased 
is this boon of civilization ! 

The military subjugation of the natives of Hispaniola plunged 
its former rulers and its people in gloom and despair. Finding 
it hopeless to struggle at arms with this mail-clad race, the 
Indians betook themselves to the expedient of starving their 
conquerors by refraining from cultivating the soil, or raising 
food even for themselves. They retreated to the most inaccessi- 
ble mountains, after destroying the food and crops already pro- 
duced, laying waste their own fields ; and they preferred rather 
to drag out a miserable subsistence on roots and herbs than be 
the submissive slaves of the Spaniards. These measures, how- 
ever, exposed the natives, accustomed to live in the open air and 
enjoy the abundance of a bountiful soil and climate, to the damp 
air of forests or the clammy atmosphere of caves, to the vicious 
effects of poisonous roots for their bread and the sickening con- 
sequences of scanty food, so that the native population was as 
effectually decimated by disease as it had been by the swords of 
the invaders. The Spaniards, on the other hand, showed the 
true mettle of a fully developed and civilized race ; for it is a trait 
of the Spanish character to be able to bear, and even to be 
aggressive under hunger and thirst, marches and fatigues, when- 
ever there is an object to be attained, whether it be national or 
personal, heroic or sordid. The Spaniards, too, unlike the 
natives, dependent as they were on their immediate local and 
scanty resources, and relying solely on the bounty of nature, 
had a powerful, proud, and prosperous other home beyond the 
seas to appeal to ; a mother country to sustain them, and great 
ships to bring foods and medicines, and the implements of peace 
and of war ; a nation ambitious and able to sound the trumpet of 
Spanish conquest, and sustain it. 

Spanish resolution was not to be balked by any measure of 
Indian combination. The natives were not permitted to languish 
and perish in their mountain retreats. The Spanish soldiers 
followed them to their caves, now their homes, and compelled 
them at the point of the sword to return to the labors and toils 



ON COLUMBUS. 317 

imposed on them by their conquerors. The natives, thus driven 
from their caves in the mountains, fled to remoter and more deso- 
late and deadly heights and caverns. Whole families fled from 
one place to another : mothers, burdened with their infants and 
a few articles of use, traversed in hunger, fear, and despair their 
once verdant and abundant fields, on the rocky cliffs and passes 
of the mountains, fleeing from Spanish swords or lances ; the 
old and tenderest young sank upon the way. The pursuers gave 
their victims no rest from labor or flight ; the fisheries and hunts 
were abandoned to the victors by the vanquished, and many of 
the latter perished for want of food in a country latel}' abound- 
ing with spontaneous crops and fruits. Every sound, even of the 
forest or rivers, startled the pursued. Finally there was scarcely 
a native found at large to be hunted ; a Spaniard could traverse 
the island without meeting an Indian from sea to sea. The few 
that escaped came down to the fields and accepted the inevitable 
yoke of toil and slavery ; while the conquerors became the lords 
of the land, even using the natives as their beasts of burden, and 
in their travels being carried on their shoulders. 

Entire submission from the beginning brought no relief, as was 
witnessed in the case of the unfortunate Guacanagari. While 
his friendship for the Spaniards subjected him to the hatred and 
hostility of his own race and neighbors, it did not exempt him 
from the heavy tribute exacted from those who had resisted 
and warred against the Spanish rule, nor from remorseless 
cruelty and an agonizing death, a consummate fate. The pay- 
ment of the tribute was exacted from him and his people, allies 
though they were, with unsparing exactness. He and they suc- 
cumbed under the intolerable burdens their professed friends 
imposed upon them. Ojeda attempted to justify the cruelty of 
the Spaniards to him by the greater cruelty of slandering his 
name and character. The admiral, now engrossed with the 
cares and labors of conquest and administration, it has been sug- 
gested in his excuse, and feeling the harsh thrust of calumny 
and persecution from his own people at home penetrating his 
own heart, would, had he not been much absent in other parts 
of the island, have shielded one whom he always trusted and 
befriended when others attacked ? The hatred of neighboring' 
caciques and tribes, the lamentations of his own impoverished 
subjects, and the exactions of the Spaniards, drove this amiable 



3l8 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

but doomed chief to the mountainous caves, and to an obscure 
and miserable death.* 

We have already related events which showed how filled with 
thorns was the viceregal crown worn by Christopher Columbus 
in the new domains of his own discovery. Margarite, Father 
Boil, and other deserters from Hispaniola, chiefly cavaliers, on 
arriving in Spain had proved themselves busy slanderers and 
libellers against the name, reputation, and administration of their 
chief, whom they had abandoned in the moment of his greatest 
need. In order to justify their own perfidy, they represented 
Columbus as the real criminal, and they, his innocent and de- 
ceived victims, had sought refuge under the paternal wings of 
their and his sovereigns. Their chief calumnies were that he had 
designedly deceived the king and queen and the world in rela- 
tion to the resources of the country, and especially in his state- 
ments of its riches in gold, while the country was in fact poor, 
destitute of the precious metals, and now groaning under the 
oppressions and cruelties of Columbus and his brothers ; and 
they exhibited letters from some they left behind stating their 
miserable condition and their inability to return home because of 
their sickness and poverty ; that Columbus had extortionately 
aggrandized himself at the expense of the sovereigns and the 
colon}^ and natives. Sebastian de Olano, the receiver of the 
crown revenues, who had heard this charge commenced in the 
colony, had sent a letter by the same ship with the deserters, 
giving a direct contradiction to the falsehood. These malcon- 
tents further charged that the admiral had for months absented 
himself from Hispaniola, and had probably perished in his fool- 
hardy adventures ; that the island was in confusion and anarchy 
by reason of the tyranny and misgovernment of the Genoese 
foreigner. These accusations, supported b}^ the vicar apostolic 
and the letters of other malcontents, made a deep impression 
upon the minds of Ferdinand and Isabella. To make the cause 
of the admiral more desperate, several mariners and pilots, who 
had accompanied him in his first voyage, such as Vincent Yanes 
Pinzon, and others, made offers to the crown to undertake voy- 
ages of discovery and colonization in the new world entirely at 



* For these and further details, see the pages of Las Casas, Peter Martyr, Charle- 
voix, Irving, and the Count de Lorgues. 



ON COLUMBUS. 319 

their own cost, and without expense to the government. Ferdi- 
nand, who was known to be sordid and mistrusting, accepted 
such offers, though his permits or commissions were in direct 
contravention of the rights of the admiral. The calumnies of 
Margarite and Father Boil, so falsely and maliciously made, 
were unworthily and fraudulently sustained by Bishop Fonseca. 
These two ecclesiastics, real politicians clothed with sacred func- 
tions and duties by King Ferdinand, and which they shamefully 
neglected for the affairs of the State and of the world, have 
become recognized by all historians as bearing a " mortal hatred," 
as the Count de Lorgues expresses it, against Columbus. Fon- 
seca supported the grant of licenses to Pinzon and others to 
make voyages to the new world, though he knew, as his patron, 
the king, knew, that they plainly violated the concessions sol- 
emnly made to Columbus. In fact, on April loth, 1495, the 
Spanish sovereigns, by public proclamation, gave a general 
license to all subjects of the crown to prosecute on their own 
account voyages of discovery and colonization to the new world, 
and to all native-born subjects to settle in Hispaniola ; and de- 
tailed regulations were issued for the conduct of such enter- 
prises, and for securing to the crown its share of gold and other 
products. Fonseca was directed to send out with a fleet, which 
was about to sail for Hispaniola with provisions and general 
supplies, under the command of one Juanoto Berardi, some dis- 
creet and trusty person, who should, in case of the admiral's 
absence, take upon himself the government of Hispaniola, and in 
case of his presence or return, to make strict investigation into 
the complaints of the malcontents, and to apply a remedy to all 
abuses discovered to exist. Diego Carillo, a commander of a 
military order, was selected for this delicate and important func- 
tion ; but as this officer was not then ready to sail, the fleet of 
twelve ships was compelled to sail without him, and a trusty 
person was to go out in his stead, commissioned to superintend 
the distribution of the provisions and to redress and remedy the 
existing evils of the island ; and in case the admiral was at home, 
his administration was not to be disturbed. This officer was to 
return and make report of his trust to the sovereigns. These 
measures, taken as they were without his consent, were a severe 
blow to the popularity and position of the admiral. 

Such was the condition of the admiral's fortunes at court. 



320 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

when fortunately the fleet under Antonio de Torres arrived in 
Spain, with Don Diego Columbus on board. The sovereigns 
now heard directly from the admiral, and of his safe return to 
Hispaniola ; received the accounts of his voyages and explora- 
tions along the islands of Cuba and Jamaica, the documents and 
declarations showing that he had reached and explored the ex- 
tremities of Asia, and had opened to his sovereigns and to his 
country Oriental regions of boundless wealth. These accounts 
were supported by the golden specimens sent home, and by the 
animals, trees, and shrubs of that new empire thus acquired for 
Spain. A reaction now set in favorable to the fortunes of 
Columbus. The queen ordered that, instead of the soldier Diego 
Carillo, a former companion of Columbus on his first voyage, 
who was under obligations to him, and whom on nis return he 
had warmly recommended to the favor of the crown, and now a 
member of her own household, should be sent out on the impor- 
tant duty of investigation and relief to Hispaniola. This was 
Juan Aguado, whose appointment the queen delicately and 
kindly thought would prove acceptable to Columbus. Fonseca, 
having officiously and maliciously seized the gold brought 
over by Don Diego Columbus for account of his brother's 
share, Isabella ordered him to restore the same to Don Diego, 
with suitable explanations and courteous amends, and to take 
counsel from the passengers and others on the fleet of Torres as 
to how the measures of his department could be made agreeable 
to the admiral ; he was also ordered to send to court Bernal 
Diaz de Pisa, who was the first to disturb the administration of 
Columbus in Hispaniola. 

Orders had been issued for the exposure to sale as slaves, in 
the markets of Andalusia, of the numerous Indians taken as 
prisoners in the recent encounters between the Spaniards and 
the natives — orders issued probably by Ferdinand, with the view 
of replenishing the royal exchequer, for which purpose the living 
cargo was sent out from Hispaniola. The queen, on discovering 
this, was deeply moved with pity ; for it was her prayer that the 
Indians should become Christians rather than be made slaves. 
She consulted her most confidential advisers on the subject of 
the lawfulness of enslaving the natives, and as their opinions 
varied, she decided the question according to her own pure and 
enlightened conscience, and in favor of libert3\ She ordered 



ON COLUMBUS. 321 

Fonseca to provide for returning the captured Indians to their 
own country, but excepted from this order nine of them, whom 
Columbus had selected to be educated to become interpreters, 
and thus be able to aid in the conversion of their countrymen to 
Christianity. Fonseca obeyed, though with reluctance, the man- 
dates of the queen, in which she showed her regard for the ad- 
miral ; but Fonseca felt them as humiliations to himself ; and his 
hostility toward that illustrious person is said to have become so 
intensified, that he availed himself of every opportunity during 
the admiral's life — and his official opportunities were frequent — 
to delay and thwart his measures and enterprises, fraught as they 
were with the glory and pre-eminence of Spain. 

The queen studiously studied to give no umbrage to Colum- 
bus by her acts, but rather to show her confidence in him ; yet 
the sovereigns united in such measures of precaution and regu- 
lation as they thought could remedy the existing evils and pre- 
vent others. They instructed him by letter to limit the colony 
to five hundred persons ; to discontinue the shortening or stop- 
page of rations, by way of punishment for offences, as detrimen- 
tal to the health of the colonists. An experienced and skilful 
metallurgist, Pablo Belvis, was sent out in place of Firmin Cado, 
and the places of Father Bo'fl and his followers were supplied by 
a corps of missionaries. The Indian captives were sent back to 
freedom and their country, so far as country and liberty were 
left for the natives, and the admiral was enjoined to extend to 
the aborigines kindness and gentle treatment. Would that these 
measures had been sent out in time to do some good ! Now, 
alas ! it was too late ; the passions of Europeans had thwarted 
the noble purposes of Isabella and Columbus. 

By means of his unworthy and intentional delays and obstruc- 
tions, Fonseca prevented the sailing of the ships before the end 
of August, when they sailed with Aguado as agent of the crown, 
who was accompanied by Don Diego Columbus. The admiral 
was absent from Isabella and busily engaged in the interior of 
the island on the arrival of x\guado. This official, though under 
heavy obligations to him, and though restricted by his commis- 
sion and the verbal instructions he had received, lost sight of all 
prudence and justice ; assumed the tone and air of power and 
administration ; ignored the position of the Adelantado then 
exercised at Isabella by Bartholomew Columbus, refused him 



322 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

sight of his commission, and only afterw-ard, and then with great 
pomp and sound of trumpets, caused it to be publicly proclaimed. 
This document was couched in indefinite language. Aguado 
was simply commissioned to speak to the colonists on the part of 
the sovereigns, and to receive from them in return faith and 
credit ; and while even these words were restricted by verbal 
instructions, Aguado insolentl}^ amplified them by his assumption 
of authority, his interference in the affairs of the colony, and in 
the pretended redress of grievances. Proving himself to be a 
mere upstart, he was as destitute of forethought as he was of 
prudence, truth, and justice. While criminals and offenders of 
every kind, at his bidding, arose up to accuse and malign the 
admiral and his brothers and their administration, he allowed 
reports of the downfall of Columbus and of the appointment of 
a new admiral to circulate through the island, and he taunted the 
admiral with purposely remaining away from Isabella in order 
to avoid the investigation of his conduct and the punishment of 
his misdeeds. 

On the other hand, as soon as Columbus heard of the arrival 
of Aguado, and of his arrogant conduct, he hastened from the 
interior to the city. Aguado had sufficient followers from the 
most degraded classes on the island, and from the disloyal of all 
classes, to espouse his cause, and he had the hardihood to start 
forth at the head of a body of cavalry to seek the so-charged 
fallen and derelict viceroy. Columbus arrived at Isabella in the 
midst of the turmoil and disorder created by Aguado. His 
friends were apprehensive that the meeting between the high- 
spirited and tenacious viceroy with this boasting and arrogant 
pretender would be stormy and violent, for it was well known 
that the admiral had every provocation, and that his cause was 
just. The queen had selected Aguado as an act of regard for 
the admiral, to whom he was under many obligations, and it 
was evident that some enemy of the latter had seduced him from 
the path of honor and duty, and inspired him with the unworthy 
purpose of seeking the downfall of his former friend. That Juan 
Rodriguez de Fonseca, aided by his equally unworthy colleagues 
in the Bureau of Indian Affairs, was now, as he proved himself 
from the beginning to the end, the instigator of the present 
persecutions against Columbus, is the accepted voice of history. 
He was a politician clothed with ecclesiastical power, titles, and 



ON COLUMBUS. ' 323 

insignia ; he was a man of the world and a self-seeker, who had 
sought and found place in the Church. His name might now 
be known and venerated in history as the right arm of the Span- 
ish sovereigns and of their viceroy, in the grand work of giving 
to mankind a new world to inhabit and ennoble with civilization 
and religion ; he might have ranked among Christian heroes by 
promoting the conversion of the Indians to Christianity and their 
safety from annihilation ; and his name might have gone down 
in histor}^ along with that of a more worthy bishop of the 
Church, the great and good Las Casas, the noble Bishop of 
Chiapa. He might have won renown by having his obscure 
name linked with the name of Columbus ; but he preferred the 
part of meanness and dishonor, and his name is only associated 
with these great events and distinguished persons by the con- 
trast which the little and the base things of earth bear to the 
grand and magnificent. 

It was a part of Aguado's scheme to irritate Columbus by 
insulting him in the name of his own sovereigns, and to betray 
him into words and acts of indignation and rebellion against 
their authority and dignity. But the conduct of Columbus tow- 
ered above the baseness of his enemies, for he had experienced 
too much of life and of affairs, had passed through severe ordeals 
of suffering and disappointment, and by long self-training and 
pious self-denial, he had become the master of a naturally impul- 
sive disposition. Aguado struggled to do just what Isabella had 
studied to avoid — giving offence to the admiral ; but Columbus 
experienced an inward satisfaction in standing superior to the 
vices, the crimes, the selfishness and machinations of bad and 
degraded men, and of the baser portion of mankind. He proved 
himself equal to the present trying emergency. He saw his 
enemies and detractors multiply in great numbers before his 
approach. The authority of his brother, the Adelantado, had 
been set at defiance or ignored, his own commission questioned, 
the colony demoralized and turned against him, and even the 
Indians came into Isabella under the impression that he was a 
fallen and degraded chief, and were seduced into joining the 
clamor and the slanders against their best friend. It was true, 
they had unparalleled wrongs and grievances to complain of, 
but it was not Columbus or his brothers ; it was, on the contrary, 
such men as Aguado and his followers who had been the origina- 



324 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

tors and perpetrators of them. It looked as though the discov- 
erer of the new world was the most unworthy and the most 
unfortunate of its inhabitants. 

Columbus, whose conduct under the delays he had experienced 
at Lisbon and in Spain, when there was question of discovering 
another hemisphere, has been pronounced by historians as 
marked by ability, now that the achievement was accomplished, 
showed even greater strength of character and conduct. Aguado 
advanced to exhibit and proclaim his commission from the sover- 
eigns. Columbus with unruffled calmness received the puffed-up 
official with solemn and ceremonious courtesy and dignity, and 
with ostentatious display ordered a second reading of the letter 
with sound of trumpets before the assembled multitude, com- 
posed as it was of soldier and husbandman, cavalier and peasant, 
scientist and mechanic, Indian and European, loyal and disloyal, 
and people of many nationalities, varied histories, and indescri- 
bable appearances, the motley inhabitants of two hemispheres 
brought together. Whereupon the admiral, after listening to 
the reading of the royal letter with profound respect, in formal 
speech and with every show of loyalty and honor assured 
Aguado that he was now and at all times ready to make due obe- 
dience to his sovereigns and an ever-ready compliance with their 
orders. The audience, astonished at the lofty bearing of the 
admiral, remained in baffled silence, while Aguado, foiled in his 
scheme, and smarting with defeat, burst forth in arrogant and 
insolent language and tone to insult the admiral in public, hoping 
anew to provoke the latter to an altercation ; but Columbus was 
equal to the occasion, and, as we are told, " bore his insolence 
with great modesty." Thus defeated in his first designs, this 
unworthy official resorted now to the shameful means of inciting 
the populace to clamor against the admiral, to impute to him 
and his brothers their grievances and the calamities of the island, 
to accumulate an immense mass of worthless and perjured testi- 
mony against him, not stopping at maligning his public adminis- 
tration, but invading the unsullied precincts of his private char- 
acter, conduct, and motives. The Indians, wards of the gener- 
ous Queen of Castile, were incited to assemble together at the 
house of Manicatex, and through their chiefs to prefer formal 
complaints and charges against Columbus. The misdeeds and 
vices of his enemies were even now imputed to him and his sup- 



ON COLUMBUS. 325 

porters. Such was the highest achievement of the ungrateful 
Aguado, who, having collected an immense mass of documen- 
tary testimonies, forming, as he supposed, an unanswerable in- 
dictment against Columbus, he prepared to return to Spain to 
consummate his ruin. Thus, in both hemispheres, was Colum- 
bus slandered and plotted against. He resolved also to return 
to Spain, and to meet all his enemies and all their calumnies at 
the royal court and imperial tribunal. The ships were ready to 
depart. 

At this juncture, and just as the fleet was about to sail, a storm 
truly American in character and violence, and such as was 
unknown in Europe, suddenly burst upon the island and defeated 
every project. It was of unprecedented violence and disaster, 
even in the West Indies. It possessed the terror of storms pre- 
ceding volcanic eruptions, bringing all the elements of air, fog, 
cloud, vapor, and water in violent struggle against each other 
and against the earth, with prevailing darkness and terrific light- 
ning. Huge forests were prostrated, groves laid waste, moun- 
tains rent, and masses of rock hurled below to choke the rivers ; 
and the earth seemed threatened with its primeval chaos. The 
inhabitants fled for shelter to the caverns. The expectant and 
ready fleet was struck with equal violence ; the ships were tossed 
and whirled around, cables snapped, anchors were useless, and 
all but one of the ships was sunk with all on board, or wrecked. 
So unprecedented was the tempest, that the Indians supersti- 
tiously attributed it, as they now attributed all their misfortunes, 
to these new invaders of their country.* 

The Nina, that stanch little caravel which had participated in 
the first voyage of the great discoverer, which had succored 
Columbus in his shipwreck at La Navidad, had carried him back 
to Spain through terrific and unprecedented European storms, 
and now, under the name of the Santa Clara, had borne him 
through the navigation of Cuba and the discovery of Jamaica 



* Barry's translation of De Lorgues' " Columbus," pp. 334-336 ; Ramusio, torn, iii., 
p. 7 ; Herrera, " Hist. Ind.," decad. i., lib. ii., cap. 18 ; Peter Martyr, decad. i., lib. 
iv. ; Irving's " Columbus," vol. i., pp. 63-69. 

The Indian name for such a storm was " furicane," or " uricane," from which is 
derived our present English word hurricane. It has been adopted into the Spanish, 
French, Italian, German, Danish, and other European languages, as Webster relates, 
and he ascribes to it a Carib origin. Such tempests are also said to prevail in the 
East Indies. 



326 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

and the Queen's Gardens, was the only unwrecked ship of the 
fleet. Columbus ordered this talismanic ship, the vessel of his 
fortunes, but now dismantled, to be repaired, and a new one, 
the Santa Cruz, to be built with the wrecks of the other ships. 

Among the accusations made against him at court was the 
charge that he had falsely misrepresented as rich in gold the 
country which, as the accusers alleged, was destitute of precious 
metals. This accusation was bolstered up by the false assays of 
the pretended metallurgist, Firmin Cado. While his vindication 
was already prepared by himself and his brothers, with consum- 
mate ability, on all points, his cause seemed now suddenly and 
unexpectedly vindicated by the arrival of news of the discover}' 
of the gold-mines of Hayna. Some months previously a young 
Aragonian, Miguel Diaz, attached to the serviceof the Adelantado, 
Don Bartholomew Columbus, had wounded his enemy in a duel, 
and fearing the inflexible sternness of that strict disciplinarian, 
had fled, with five or six of his companions or associates in the 
quarrel, to the remote southern portion of the island. In their 
wanderings the deserters came to an Indian village on the banks 
of the Ozema River, near where the present city of San Domingo 
stands. The female cacique of the village received and enter- 
tained the strangers with hospitality ; they tarried ; the princess 
became enamored of the gallant leader, and she became a Chris- 
tian in order to marry him, taking the name of Catalina, though 
no formal ceremony could have taken place at the time in the 
absence of priest or missionar}-. In time, however, Miguel Diaz, 
feeling, in common with his companions, a longing desire to return 
to the society and civilization of his countrymen, such as they 
were in that corner of the western world, so remote from the 
mother country, became not unfrequently sad or thoughtful, 
notwithstanding the blandishments and charms of the fair Cata- 
lina. With the unerring intuitiveness of true love, always in- 
stinct with soHcitude and ingenious in plans, whether at the most 
polished courts of Europe or in the ungilded Indian palace cabins 
of the western world, Catalina perceived the change, and beset 
herself to remove, by a lover's expedient, the danger she felt of 
losing her gallant and handsome lord, now the virtual cacique of 
the tribe. She knew that his love was shared by another divinity, 
and that was no other than the goddess of gold. She devised a 
plan for anchoring the lover to her royal bowers, even though 



ON COLUMBUS. 32/ 

it might transfer her country to the grasp of the stranger race. 
She communicated to Diaz the intelligence that rich mines of 
gold lay at Hayna, in her dominions, not over fifty leagues dis- 
tant, and she even invited, through him, the whole Spanish 
colony of Isabella to abandon the latter spot, which she repre- 
sented as unhealthy ; and she urged them, through him, to settle 
permanently in her country. Her country was to become his 
country, while his God should become her God. Diaz saw in 
this an opportunity to retrieve his name and fortune, and to con- 
done his offence. After confirmation of Catalina's statements by 
the concurrent statements of the natives about the mines, and 
after observing how beautiful, fertile, and salubrious the country 
was, and yielding to the enticing offers of his Indian queen, he 
succeeded with the aid of native guides in finding his way back 
to the vicinity of Isabella. He learned that his antagonist in the 
duel was living and convalescent. Knowing that he brought 
with him the assurances of his own pardon, he entered the city, 
presented himself to the stern but poHtic Adelantado, communi- 
cated the grateful news, was welcomed by that official, recon- 
ciled to his enemy, and received his pardon and that of the 
Adelantado conditionally. 

The Adelantado proceeded in person and without delay to 
visit the enchanted and golden region of Hayna, accompanied 
by Diaz himself, Francisco de Garay, the Indian guides, and an 
adequate number of well-armed Spanish soldiers, in order to in- 
sure the safety of the expedition. Proceeding southward, first 
by Magdalena, thence across the Royal Vega by the fortress of 
Conception, thence through a mountain defile and across a 
beautiful plain rivalling the Royal Vega, and called Bonao, they 
reached the river Hayna, upon whose western bank the glitter- 
ing and coveted treasures were found in quantities and sizes suffi- 
cient to delight the eyes and ravish the hearts of the Spaniards. 
The golden deposits exceeded anything of the kind yet discov- 
ered, even those of Cibao. Over a space of country six miles in 
breadth, the precious metal so abounded that an ordinary laborer 
could easily collect the amount of three drams in a single day. 
Excavations, apparently old, in the golden region indicated that 
the mines had been regularly worked, a circumstance which had 
its natural effect in starting the Spanish mind to rush into the 
jealms of fancy and speculation. Indian hospitaUty also in this 



328 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

favored region was as unlimited as the precious ore, and the 
country was blessed in soil and climate beyond the descriptions 
of Miguel Diaz, Love and lucre have often in history been inti- 
mate companions. Diaz was now pardoned unconditionally ; he 
received not only signal favors, but was given employments of 
honor and trust, to which he proved himself as faithful as he did 
then and ever after to his Catalina, who was then regularly 
baptized and married, and whose constancy was rewarded with 
Christian offspring and Spanish friendship and protection. 

" 'Tis gold 
Which makes the true man kill'd, and saves the thief ; 
Nay, sometimes hangs both thief and true man : What 
Can it not do, and undo ?" 

— Shakespeare's " Cymbeline." 

When the Adelantado returned to Isabella with the tidings of 
the rich treasures of Hayna and with the valuable specimens of 
the golden ores, the admiral lost sight of his troubles of state 
and of administration in his gratitude to God for this providen- 
tial and direct intervention in his favor, especially at the moment 
when all the world seemed turned against him. The anxieties 
of his mind and heart were much relieved. He thanked with 
generous gratitude his ever-faithful brother and the constant 
Miguel Diaz for their welcome tidings and services, and with 
prompt energy took measures for securing the advantages which, 
should flow from this timely discovery. A fortress was ordered 
to be erected on the banks of the Hayna, near the mines, and the 
mines were directed to be worked with effective and diligent 
effort. The admiral, as his whole life marvellously illustrates, 
united to the most practical and sagacious ability for business a 
wonderful proneness to indulge in speculative and hopeful fancies 
based upon his study of the great geographical and cosmographi- 
cal writers of the world. His conjecture that Hispaniola was 
the Ophir of Solomon, and that its treasures had built the temple 
of the true God at Jerusalem, were now confirmed, and the 
route by water from the Holy Land by the Persian Gulf 
to Hispaniola was made manifest, for Cuba was now dem- 
onstrated to be the extremity of Asia. The disputes of scholars 
over the location of Ophir were now settled ; the riches of that 
treasure land had not been exhausted by Solomon, but now its 
exhaustless deposits of richest ores would reimburse his generous 



ON COLUMBUS. 329 

sovereigns. The new crusade, which would be known in history 
as the Columbian Crusade, would be successful in redeeming the 
Holy Sepulchre from Moslem desecration, and in placing it under 
the protection of an armed Christendom, His generous nature 
now exulted only in the good he could and would accomplish. 
No vain or sordid thoughts swelled his breast, for 

" But honor, virtue's meed, 
Doth bear the fairest flower in honorable seed." 

— Spenser's " Faerie Queene." 

The fortress and the mines of Hayna were called St. Chris- 
topher, after the admiral's titular saint. Don Bartholomew 
Columbus was invested with the powers of lieutenant-governor 
under the title of Adelantado, and Francisco Roldan was desig- 
nated as superior magistrate of the island, for he was one of his 
personal suite, whom he appointed judge of the first resort. 
Zealous ever for the conversion of the natives, the admiral formed 
the mission with the best material he possessed, and appointed 
the Franciscan Father Juan Bergognon chief missionary, and 
gave him as his assistant the Poor Hermit, Friar Pane, who was 
now well versed in the native dialects. Such was the irritated 
feeling among the natives, i-n consequence of their harsh experi- 
ences of Spanish rule, that they had unfortunately conceived a 
low estimate of the religion of the Spaniards, and felt in their 
hearts deep though suppressed sentiments of resentment. Since 
their own religious faith and observance were simple, not deeply 
rooted, and almost wholly destitute of formal dogmas and sym- 
bols, the introduction of Christianity would have proved an easy 
work had proper measures and men been used to this end ; but 
rancor was kept alive in the hearts of the natives by the recent 
outrages perpetrated upon them. The Poor Hermit was timor- 
ous at the dangers of his mission to the Indians of the interior, 
and requested the admiral to give him some Christian companions 
in his solitude, a request which was readily granted to his own 
selection, and for greater precaution a military post of infantry 
was established near the residence of the missionaries. Having 
done all in his power to provide for the temporal, political, and 
spiritual needs of his viceregal dominions and of his new sub- 
jects, the admiral, at the end of Februar}-, embarked on board 



330 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

his old and faithful caravel, the Santa Clara, while Aguado 
sailed in the new caravel, the Santa Cruz. March loth, 1496, 
was the day the two vessels sailed out of the port of Isa- 
bella, carrying besides the crews two hundred and twenty-five 
sick, discontented, and disappointed hidalgos, and thirty-two 
Indians. Among the latter were the unfortunate but ever-proud 
and unbending Caonabo, his brother, a son, and a nephew. In 
consequence of the want of familiarity with the navigation of 
those waters and of unfavorable winds, Columbus, as late as 
April 6th, had not proceeded beyond the Caribbee Islands. His 
provisions were low, his men fatigued by battling with the 
weather, and many were sick. Touching at Margarite and land- 
ing at Guadeloupe, where he procured three weeks' supply of 
bread, and where the inhabitants were a race of Amazonian 
women, well capable of defending their homes against all save 
Europeans in the absence of their husbands, he sailed thence on 
his homeward voyage on April 20th. The Amazons resisted the 
landing of the Spaniards, who, however, landed and took several 
of them prisoners ; but on sailing Columbus sent them back to their 
homes, with the exception of the female cacique, who had fallen 
in love with the captive, and preferred to share the ill fortunes of 
the noble Caonabo. During the voyage provisions became so 
scarce that all on board had to go on short rations, and, in their 
sufferings for food, some of the Spaniards went so far as to pro- 
pose the killing and eating of their Indian captives ; others, to 
throw them overboard. The latter unjust counsel prevailed, 
and the resolution to do so was formed and announced. Colum- 
bus nobly stood by the Indians, Avhose right to live was equal to 
that of the most favored nations of the earth. The resolution, 
which was announced, to throw these helpless captives into the 
sea in order to lessen the demand for food, and thus make the 
rations last longer, was indignantly rejected by the admiral, 
who ordered that all should fare alike. The death of Caonabo on 
the voyage has already been mentioned. The two vessels, after a 
voyage of three months, anchored in the Bay of Cadiz, on June 
nth. The admiral, when his crews were threatened with starva- 
tion and the Indians with death, and when he saved their lives 
by his magnanimous decision and undaunted will against the 
combined crews of both ships, had promised that in three days 
the ships would reach the waters of Cape St. Vincent. The 



ON COLUMBUS. 331 

sailors and pilots, who had scoffed at his prediction, when it was 
verified were struck with awe ; they had seen his prophetic 
words several times before verified under similar circumstances, 
when they knew not the source of his information. They now 
regarded him as either calling to his aid the secrets of magic, or 
as guided by an inspiration from Heaven. 



k 



CHAPTER XL 

' Know, smiler ! at thy peril art thou pleased ; 
Thy pleasure is the promise of thy pain. 
Misfortune, like a creditor severe. 
But rises in demand for her delay ; 
She makes a scourge of past prosperity, 
To sting the more, and double thy distress.* 

— Young's " Night Thoughts." 

In the harbor of Cadiz, before landing, Columbus met three 
caravels under Pedro Alonzo Nino, about to sail with provisions 
for the colony of Hispaniola, the relief sent out in January hav- 
ing perished by the shipwreck of the four caravels then de- 
spatched. He also received from Nino the letters and despatches 
of the sovereigns, and it was fortunate that he now had an oppor- 
tunity of reading them before the departure of the ships. He 
rewrote his instructions to his brother, dwelling chiefly on the 
importance of securing peace, of putting the island in a condition 
to meet the king's expectations of reimbursement and profits, on 
arresting rebellious caciques and sending them to Spain, and of 
working the mines of Hayna, near which a seaport should be 
established. This was the first conception of the future city of 
San Domingo, The caravels on June 17th sailed for Hispaniola, 
and Columbus landed, after having won the hearts of many of 
the sick on board his own vessel by his kind and unsparing 
nursing and generous attentions, for they were prejudiced 
against him on leaving Isabella, and heard only now of the 
unworthy treatment he had received from Aguado. 

While the popularity of the admiral had been impaired by the 
calumnies of his enemies at court, the arrival of Aguado with his 
mass of documents hostile to his administration, and the unsightly 
appearance of the sick and dispirited colonists returning in dis- 
gust from the colony, many of whom were hidalgos and persons 
of consideration, did not improve the impressions of the popu- 
lace in regard to the new world. Aguado, Fonseca, and their 
co-conspirators now became busy in misusing and torturing 



ON COLUMBUS. 333 

everything to the discredit of the noted discoverer. To the 
calumnies of Margarite and Father Boil were now added the 
accusations of the commander Gallego, of Rodrigo Abarca, of 
Micer Girao, and of Pedro Navarro, all of whom were servitors 
of the royal household and persons of weight, though unjustly 
prejudiced against Columbus. His detractors were now multi- 
plied by the arrival of so many sick, dejected, and unsuccessful 
colonists and adventurers. The air rang loudly with complaints 
against the one whose triumphant entry into Palos three years 
before as the discoverer of a new world had filled the air with 
salvos of joy which had scarcely yet died away. Now he could 
scarcely find audience for his recitals of the great progress since 
made in his advancing discoveries of the western world : the 
exploration ol Cuba, which was now the supposed newly dis- 
covered continent, and the conjectured attainment of a long- 
cherished dream of the learned and the great — the geographical 
and maritime accessibility of Europe and Asia to each other by 
the northwestern oceanic route, the approach to the Aurea Cher- 
sonesus of antiquity, the discovery of mines which were then 
believed to be identical with the Ophir of Solomon. He had 
been the hero of a day ; now he was regarded as the ruin of 
thousands, the deceiver of the world, the adventurer in unknown 
realms, the champion of a worthless and delusive theory, the 
Genoese dreamer. Sneers greeted him whom all Spain had so 
lately triumphantly honored and enthusiastically admired and 
revered. 

Columbus announced his arrival in Spain to the sovereigns, 
and awaited with dignity and loyalty their orders. All Spain 
was aware of the difficulties of his situation, and he felt most 
keenly the difference between his reception then and the ovation 
he received on his first return as the discoverer of a new hemi- 
sphere. What effect were the machinations and slanders of his 
enemies, powerful in numbers, in position, and in influence to 
have in the minds of the court ? Being a deeply devout man, 
he now took refuge from an unjust and ungrateful world in the 
consolations of religion. For one month he seems to have been 
lost to the world and to history, but he was not lost to himself 
or to his God. He retired from the public gaze, spent his time 
in prayer and devotion, and so deeply disgusted was he with all 
worldly affairs, that when he made his appearance on the streets 



334 ^LD AND NEW LIGHTS 

of Seville, he was dressed in the monastic habit of St. Francis, 
wore the coarse cord of that order around his waist, and his beard 
was long and flowing, like that of the Franciscan monks. It 
would seem that he came from his ship in this mediaeval garb, 
and Oviedo says that this was through his disgust for the world 
and mortification at his wrongs.* Washington Irving conjec- 
tures, but erroneously as is generally thought, that this strange 
and penitential garb was assumed in the performance of some 
vow he had made to Heaven on the voyage. f Las Casas him- 
self writes that he saw the admiral in Seville dressed somewhat 
like a Franciscan monk, though the habit was not as long as that 
worn by the Franciscans.:}: The Curate of Los Palacios at this 
time receiv^ed a visit from him, and relates that his dress, in its 
shape and color, and his beard in its length, resembled those of 
the Order of St. Francis of the Strict Observance. This author 
also mentions his entertaining the admiral and his Indian captives 
for several days in his residence, and that he had been shown 
and held in his hand the massive chain of gold which was after- 
ward worn by the brother of Caonabo in the visit to the court 
at Burgos. § Humboldt, on the other hand, attributes this wear- 
ing of the Franciscan dress to the characteristic and well-known 
pious and devout tendency of the admiral's mind.f His fond- 
ness for the Franciscan Order is well known, and the Count de 
Lorgues, who especially dwells throughout his " Life of Colum- 
bus" upon his religious life and character, concurs with Hum- 
boldt, and even says that there is reason for believing that the 
admiral seriously meditated on following his friend, Father Juan 
Perez de Marchena, the Franciscan, to the Convent of La Rabida, 
which was celebrated as one of the consecrated cloisters of the 
Franciscans. 

However this may be, after one month's delay we see him 
again assuming his historical character as the discoverer of new 
Avorlds ; for the letter of the sovereigns, bearing date at Almazan 
on July 1 2th, 1496, called him to court as soon as he was recov- 



* Oviedo y Valdez, " Hist. Nat. y Gen.," etc., lib. ii., chap. xiii. 
f Irving's " Columbus," vol. ii., p. 84. 

X Las Casas, " La Historia de las Indias," lib. i., chap, ii., MS. 
§ Cura de Los Palacios, cap. 131 ; Andres Bernaldez, "Hist, de los Reyes," cat,,, 
chap, vii., MS. 

II Humboldt, " Hist, de la Geograph. du Nouveau Continent," tom. i., p. 22. 



ON COLUMBUS. 335 

ered from the fatigues of his late voyage, and congratulated 
him on his safe return. He lost no time in making his journey 
to Burgos, and on the way he endeavored to dispel the calumnies 
of his foes and the general depreciation of his achievements by 
displaying his Indian captives decked in collars and chains of 
massive gold, with bracelets, anklets, and coronets of the same 
precious metal ; and he exhibited the masks, images of wood or 
cotton, and other objects of value or curiosity, trophies of his 
conquests over the princes and kings of the extreme regions of 
Asia and the eastern islands. It was thus that Roman con- 
querors made their triumphant entries into the Imperial City, 
bringing in their train the vanquished sovereigns and the booty 
wrung from barbaric nations then transformed into subjects of 
Rome. In both cases it was necessary to convince the minds of 
the populace of the efficacy and grandeur of the conquests, 
though Mr. Irving, forgetting that it was in the days of Colum- 
bus impossible for the people to foresee the rising of free and 
mighty nations in the west and in the route which Columbus had 
opened, deprecates the petty standard by which his sublime dis- 
covery was judged — a standard not rising above the transient 
and dazzling effect of golden trinkets and glaring trifles. It 
would have required a prophetic vision for the people of that 
or of an}^ day to have anticipated the unparalleled spectacle of 
boundless progress, of empires and republics extending from 
ocean to ocean, and the great and marvellous achievements in 
civilization, arts, sciences, mechanics, material wealth, national 
grandeur, and human liberty now displayed by two continents 
at the quarto-centennial celebration of the Columbian discovery. 
The sovereigns received Columbus with distinction and honor, 
and the gracious manner of their princely conduct lifted a heavy 
load from the heart of the discoverer. No allusion was made to 
the complaints preferred against him. Whatever transient effect 
the slanders of his enemies had produced on their minds was 
immediately removed by the exalted character, the past services, 
the constant loyalty, the candor, and by the very appearance of 
the admiral before them. As he unfolded to the sovereigns the 
progress of the great enterprise, the condition of the colony, the 
discovery of the Caribbees, of Jamaica, of the Queen's Gardens, 
and the exploration of Cuba ; spoke of the mines of Cibao and 
Hayna ; showed the masks, cinctures and purses decked or filled 



336 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

with the precious ores from them, and nuggets as large as nuts 
from Hayna ; exhibited and presented the animals, birds, and 
plants of the new countries, and the sacred stones, images, aims, 
and instruments of the natives, both sovereigns became ravished 
with the interest and charm with which they invested their new 
dominions. They loaded him with kindnesses, and publicly 
honored their successful and loyal viceroy, greatly to the chagrin 
of his enemies. The queen, in an especial manner, thanked him 
for his great services and for his loyal aid and counsel at the 
time of the departure of the Infanta Donna Juana for Flanders, 
to join her husband. Archduke Philip of Austria. 

Whether at this interview or subsequently is not clear, but 
the undertaking of further explorations and discoveries, the seek- 
ing out of the mainland or continent, and the vigorous working 
of the mines were measures then or soon afterward decided 
upon, and for these great ends Columbus proposed and the 
sovereigns ordered a third voyage under his command. During 
some delay, growing out of the queen's engrossed attention with 
the marriage and departure of her daughter, the Infanta Donna 
Juana, and the reception of the Princess Margaret, Xho. fiancee of 
the Infante Don Juan, Columbus availed himself of his enforced 
residence at Burgos to cultivate the personal and professional 
acquaintance of the celebrated Jayme Ferrer, the lapidary, with 
whom he had already corresponded from Hispaniola at the 
queen's request. This eminent scientist of his day, in a letter 
to the queen, thus expresses his high and prophetic appreciation 
of the man that discovered America : " I believe that in its high 
and mysterious designs Divine Providence has chosen him as its 
mandatory for this work, which seems to me to be but an intro- 
duction and a preparation for things which this same Divine 
Providence reserves to itself to disclose to us, for its own glory 
and the salvation and happiness of the world." * 

Though the Spanish sovereigns had promised to comply with 
the request of Columbus for the outfit of another voyage, his 
work was delayed by many unfortunate incidents — the ani- 
bitious foreign policy of Ferdinand ; for not only was he involved 
in an adroit combination of schemes in regard to France, but he 



* " Coleccion Diplomatica," doc. num. Ixviii. ; Barry's De Lorg^es' "Columbus," 
P- 349- 



ON COLUMBUS. 33/ 

had resolved on seizing the Neapolitan throne, and was nego- 
tiating that matrimonial alliance — a deeply laid scheme of parental 
and imperial ambition — which subsequently made his grandson, 
Charles V., the emperor and ruler of a great part of Europe. 
Armies of immense numbers had to be maintained at Naples, and 
on the Spanish frontier next to France large squadrons of ships 
had to be kept afloat to guard his interests in the Mediterranean. 
His dynastic ambition cost the royal exchequer immense sums of 
money, for at this very time he had sent that grand and costly 
Armada, consisting of more than one hundred vessels and con- 
taining twenty thousand of his subjects on board, and among 
them many of the very flower of the Spanish nobilit}', to escort 
to Flanders the Princess Juana to be married to Philip, Arch- 
duke of Austria. The same magnificent convoy was to return 
to Spain with the archduke's sister, Margarita, who was the 
fiancee of the Infante and Prince Royal of Spain, Prince Juan. 
It was thus that while Spanish dominion was being extended to 
embrace great empires in the new world, through the genius and 
loyal services of Columbus, diplomacy and arms, blended with 
family alliances, were concentrating in his dynasty the choicest 
empires of Europe. These great undertakings, both at the west 
and the east, had depleted the royal treasury, and Columbus had 
to wait. The king, one of the most calculating of men, had re- 
strained his appreciation for Columbus within narrow and chill- 
ing bounds, in proportion to the amount of gold returned from 
the west ; but it was the queen chiefly, who, in the midst of 
most anxious family and maternal solicitudes, never lost sight of 
the grand work he was doing for his country, and sustained the 
more glorious and enduring work of discovery and conquest in 
the new world. While the kino; was reserved, and the Bureau 
of the Indies, with Bishop Fonseca at its head, was openly hos- 
tile, Columbus was sustained by the ardent sympathy and sub- 
stantial rewards of the queen. By royal edict his dignities, 
rights, and offices were confirmed as amply as they were first 
granted at Santa F6, and a principalit}^ of fifty leagues in length 
by twenty-five in breadth in Hispaniola, in a quarter to be 
selected by himself, with the title of duke or marquis, was offered 
to him. But Columbus, while tenaciously adhering to his rights 
as previously conceded, had the good judgment and forbearance 
to decline a gift, magnificent as it was, but which would have 



338 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

made him more than ever the object of envy, malice, and mis- 
representation. But he relinquished his share of the returns 
from the past voyages, on being relieved from his share of the 
expense of them, which was one eighth ; but he was not released 
from the share of expense he had incurred for the first voyage. 
He was now to receive for three years one eighth of the gross 
results of each voyage, and, moreover, a tenth of the net profits, 
and after this term the first arrangement of division was to re- 
vive in force. While historians generally attribute to Columbus 
the motive we have assigned for his declining the principalitj' in 
Hispaniola offered him by the queen, the Count de Lorgues, 
with forensic effort rather than historical truth, contends that this, 
motive was beneath his exalted character and unselfish nature,, 
and that his true motive was to leave himself free to continue 
his great discoveries until he had made the circuit of the whole 
globe, and to devote his efforts to the redemption of the Holy 
Land rather than divert his mind from these grand purposes by 
centring his thoughts and aspirations to the maintenance and 
care of such an estate, even though it afforded him an oppor- 
tunity of founding a powerful house for his second son, while 
transmitting his titles and dignities of Admiral of the Ocean and 
Viceroy of the Indies to his elder son. " In him," says the over- 
wrought Count de Lorgues, " the apostle got the mastery over 
the head of the family." * 

The admiral, however, instead of the principality, was en- 
dowed now with the privilege of founding a mayorazgo, or per- 
petual entail of his estates, thus giving the lineal and united 
descent of his estates and titles to his eldest male branch, and 
thus, too. by the entail, perpetuating the renown of his illustrious 
deeds. He accordingly exercised this high prerogative by his 
will, which was made at Seville early in 1498, and by which he 
entailed his titles and estates on his male descendants ; on failure 
of these, on his brothers and their male descendants ; and, on 
failure of these last, then to the lineal females of his stock. Such 
entailed heir was to bear the coat-of-arms of the admiral, and in 
his official signature to use onl}^ the title of admiral, without 
regard to the other numerous titles he might enjoy. The views 
and aspirations of Columbus in respect to his dignities, honors. 



Barry's De Lorgues' " Columbus," p. 352. 



ON COLUMBUS. 339 

titles, and estates not only during his lifetime, but also for his 
descendants and collaterals for all time, were in keeping with 
his own tenacious knowledge and appreciation of the grandeur 
and vastness of his discoveries. He united with mediaeval re- 
ligious devotion and piety the most worldly and ambitious plans 
of family and estate, of official dignity and jurisdiction. He was 
a striking example of earthly but honorable ambition mingled 
with the virtues and self-abnegation of a religious devotee. 
Yesterday we saw him emerging from the cloister in the humble 
garb and unshorn beard of a Franciscan monk ; to-day we behold 
him wielding the power of disposal over titles, dignities, offices, 
jurisdictions, and estates vaster than the most ancient and most 
opulent houses of the Spanish aristocracy, and eclipsing the 
immense wealth of the greatest of modern corporations. 

By the testament which he made during this interval of delay 
he provided for his other nearest relatives, members now of his 
own family, such as his second son, Fernando, his brother Bar- 
tholomew, the Adelantado, and his brother Diego, to all of 
whom he was devotedly attached, and whose loyalty to him was 
constant and honorable. In his generosity he provided that one 
tenth of the revenues of his estates should form a fund for the 
relief of all the poor relatives of his lineage, and for general pious 
and charitable uses, and provided dowries for his poor female 
relatives, present and future. He established a family domicile 
and residence for the Colombos in Genoa, his native city ; com- 
manded his successors in the entail, subject to the paramount 
interests of the Church and Spanish crown, to promote the honor, 
prosperity, and growth of the city of Genoa. Diego, his eldest 
son and heir-apparent to the entail, was enjoined to provide in 
good royal manner for the recovery of the Holy Sepulchre to 
Christendom, and for this purpose to invest all the surplus funds 
of the entail in stock of the Bank of St. George at Genoa, and to 
stand ready with these vast anticipated revenues to follow the 
King of Spain to the conquest of the sacred places, or otherwise 
himself to organize and lead the crusade at his own expense. 
The deep religious cast which this remarkable instrument re- 
ceived from his hand is intensified by the injunction given to his 
heirs, in case of schism or trouble in the Church, to throw them- 
selves at the feet of the Pope, and devote person and estate to 
the defence of the honor and dominions of the Church ; and next 



340 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

to the Church to render the same service and homage to the 
Spanish crown. He gives as an inheritance to his heir in the 
spiritual order, his own romantic loyalty to the Church, by com- 
manding him, in the confessional, that he should before confess- 
ing request the ghostly father to examine the precious document, 
and question him closely as to his fulfilment of the duties thereby 
imposed. In this remarkable document the illustrious testator, 
in the very first sentence, declares that it was the Most Holy 
Trinity who inspired him with the idea of discovering the Indies 
by sailing to the west across the ocean, and afterward made this 
idea perfectly clear to him. In the codicil, which he made 
before his death, there v/ere other interesting features, showing 
the elevation of spirit which characterized the admiral in life and 
in death. In the principal will now made the great religious 
purposes of Columbus through life, as provided for in the will, 
are divided by the Count de Lorgues under five principal heads : 
First, to pay tithes to God and His poor ; second, to deliver the 
Holy Sepulchre ; third, to secure the temporal independence of 
the Pope ; fourth, to comfort the sick ; and, fifth, to labor for 
the conversion of the Indians. The signature of the admiral to 
his will is equally remarkable for its religious and devotional 
character, and sets forth the title of Christ-Bearer, or Chris- 
topher, as illustrated by what the Count de Lorgues perhaps too 
enthusiastically calls his apostolate ; and the Holy See has now 
lately declared that from historical data it is clear and indisputa- 
ble that Columbus undertook his great discovery mainl}' with 
the view of bringing the heathen inhabitants of the countries he 
would discover to the knowledge of Christ and His religion. 

In addition to the maj'orazgo, a royal edict was made on June 
2d, 1497, whereby the king and queen revoked the general license 
giv^en or proclaimed in April, 1495, to make expeditions of dis- 
covery and exploration in the new world, which he had always 
regarded as an infraction of his privileges. The Spanish sover- 
eigns, in their edict, expressly declared that, so far from intend- 
ing to deprive him of any of his privileges, rights, favors, or 
conventions, it was their intention to bestow still further distinc- 
tions and favors upon him. While the act of Columbus had been 
regarded at first with displeasure by the king, whereby the ofifice 
and title of Adelantado had been conferred on Don Bartholomew 
Columbus, because Ferdinand regarded the power to confer such 



ON COLUMBUS. 34I 

an office as vested solely in himself, now the title and office were 
spontaneously conferred upon that worthy man by the sover- 
eigns, without allusion to his previous enjoyment of them. The 
sovereigns also gave Columbus permission to take out on his 
third voyage three hundred and thirty persons whose pay 
was given from the royal treasury, forty of them being ser- 
vants, one hundred foot soldiers, thirty sailors, thirty ship- 
boys, twenty miners, fifty husbandmen, ten gardeners, twenty 
mechanics, and thirty females, with authority to increase the 
whole number to fiv^e hundred, the additional ones to be paid 
from the yields of the colony. He was also given the right to 
make grants of land to such as would till them in vineyards, 
orchards, sugar plantations, and other agricultural or rural 
establishments, on condition of four years' residence in the 
island, and reserving all brazil-wood and precious metals to the 
crown. The solicitude of Isabella provided for the religious 
instruction of the natives and the lenient collection of the tribute. 
A few such measures alone indicated that little impression had 
been made on the minds of the sovereigns by the calumnies so 
industriously propagated against the admiral. 

While Columbus was pressing his enterprises for the grand 
and limitless advancement of Spanish empire over countless 
tribes and peoples, islands and continents, encountering delay 
and discouragement at every step, he was chagrined at seeing 
millions expended and vast armadas put afloat for the promo- 
tion of djmastic schemes or for the acquisition of some trifling 
angle or corner of European soil. He asked only for a small 
number of little caravels for the conquest of continents. After 
great delays and disappointments, he at last was cheered by a 
royal order for the advancement of six millions of maravedis 
for the third voyage. So far not a ship was procured, not a 
sailor enlisted. At this juncture the remarkable changes in the 
fortunes of the admiral, which illustrate his whole life, so fre- 
quent, so sudden, so disastrous, were followed now by singular 
and similar experiences. When on the eve of receiving the six 
millions appropriated for his voyage, a letter was received at 
court announcing the arrival at Cadiz of the pilot Pedro Alonzo 
Nino, with three caravels from Hispaniola, and containing the 
cheering announcement that he had brought from the Antilles a 
great amount of gold. Though viewing the news from different 



342 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

standpoints, Columbus and Ferdinand were at first equally re- 
joiced. Disappointment followed. The boastful pilot had sent 
this misguiding letter to the sovereigns instead of repairing in 
person to court. He went immediately to visit his family at 
Huelva. It was found on investigation that he had carried the 
despatches of the Adelantado with him. He did not arrive at 
court until the end of December, and when the despatches were 
read, the gold mentioned in Nino's letter, as brought by him 
from Hispaniola, turned out to be a cargo of Indians. The pilot 
had used an ill-timed figure of speech, whereby the gold to be 
realized from the sale of the Indians was the gold he alluded to 
in his letter. The needy king, on receipt of Nino's letter in 
October, had ordered the six millions appropriated for the third 
voyage of Columbus to be used for repairing the fortress of 
Salza, in Roussillon, which had been dismantled by the French, 
and the six millions needed for the voyage to Hispaniola were 
ordered to be taken out of the figurative gold which Nino had 
brought home. 

The admiral was stunned by this cruel and unexpected blow. 
Not only did he find himself Avithout a dollar for his enterprise 
for pushing the great discovery to the continent, but his whole 
work, past and future, though it had given a new world to 
Spain, became, in the eyes of the public and in the clamor of his 
enemies, a reproach to him, a deception to the crown, a snare to 
the people. Not only were his hopes that immediate harvests of 
gold had been reaped from the newly discovered mines of Hayna 
dissipated, but he and his work became objects of scorn and male- 
diction, the people pointing derisively to Indian prisoners and 
miserable Spanish colonists as the gold which came from His- 
paniola. When it became known that the statements brought 
by Nino's crew represented the condition of the colony as miser- 
able, and the very despatches of the Adelantado called for hasty 
relief in supplies, even his few friends staggered in their support 
of him. The whole claim of a new world discovered became 
invested with the garb of exaggeration and boasting. 

A year's delay sickened the heart of Columbus, and, as he 
himself said, he was "oppressed with reproaches." So great 
was the decline of public faith in the verity of the first accounts 
of the new world, of its treasures and wealth, so apparently dis- 
astrous all its results, that neither ships nor men could now be 



ON COLUMBUS. 343 

procured for the coming voyage. A contemporary and eye- 
witness of the scenes then enacted in Spain said, " Because 
those who went with the admiral . . . returned sick, emaci- 
ated, and of so sickly a color that they appeared more dead 
than alive, the country of the Indies was so much decried that 
nobody could be found who would venture to go there." * The 
promises of royal pay and the reiterated prospects of gold failed 
to secure ships or recruits. The achievements now celebrated 
by the world with unparalleled grandeur were then in such 
odium that men sickened at the thought of embarking on the 
very voyage which brought to light the existence of the conti- 
nent itself. Columbus, ever ready in expedients, even in the 
darkest extremities, suggested that the services of criminals sen- 
tenced to banishment, the galleys, or to the mines be commuted 
to transportation to the new settlements of Hispaniola, and to 
labor there in the public service. This was done. Nay, more ; 
proclamation was made of a general pardon of all malefactors 
at large who would come in and surrender themselves to the 
admiral, and embark with him for Hispaniola.f A scale of pun- 
ishments commuted for certain specified terms of service in the 
new settlements was published. A colony of convicts, criminals, 
and malefactors, sent thousands of miles away from the mother 
country and brought in contact with the simple, unclad, and 
guileless natives of a new hemisphere, was a measure — perhaps 
the only one then possible — which ruined the very enterprise it 
was designed to sustain. 

From a miscellaneous rabble of criminals of every degree of 
degradation and crime — pernicious poison to a noble enterprise — 
we turn to the more studied and refined marplots of bureaucracy. 
Notwithstanding the pronounced favor extended by the sover- 
eigns to the enterprise of Columbus, Antonio de Torres, having 
been charged with the duty of purchasing supplies for the fleet 
of Columbus, the " red-tape" of the bureau exacted from design 
rather than necessity an infinite number of documents to be pre- 
pared for the signatures of the official head of the bureau and of 
the admiral. When it was discovered that he had abused his 
trust by exorbitant demands, Torres was removed, and to the 

* Barry's De Lorgues' "Columbus," p. 353. 

f Las Casas, "Hist. Ind.," lib. i., cap. 112, MS. ; Mufioz, lib. vi., § 19; Irving's 
' Columbus," vol. ii., p. 96. 



344 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

sorrow of the admiral his inveterate but secret enemy, Juan 
Rodriguez de Fonseca, Bishop of Badajos, was reappointed, and 
new sets of documents more numerous than the first had to be 
prepared with all the circumlocution of Spanish ceremonial. 
Delay under Fonseca was the inevitable but disastrous result. 
Another misfortune followed. The generous queen was over- 
whelmed with sorrow by the death of the prince royal, Don 
Juan, whose nuptials had been but recently celebrated. Such 
were the straits of the colony that immediate relief must be sent 
out. The queen advanced the necessary funds from the dowry 
of the Princess Isabella, then betrothed to King Emanuel of 
Portugal. Two ships, under command of Pedro Fernandez 
Coronel, sailed with provisions for Hispaniola in the beginning 
of 1498. Fonseca and his minions covertly did all in their power 
to undermine the interests of Columbus, and to defeat the most 
urgent preparations for the voyage. They knew that his popu- 
larity was on the wane, and they resorted to all secret measures 
to annoy him, and became 'so emboldened as to extend to him 
at times open but ignoble arrogance. Though he bore these 
wrongs with prudent silence, yet with just indignation, he was 
so disheartened that it is said he meditated the abandonment of 
his great career of discovery, and probably his retirement from 
the world. The confidence of the queen was his moral support ; 
his loyal regard for this peerless woman armed him with cour- 
age. After stupendous exertions and disheartening delays the 
six remaining ships were prepared for sailing, though the general 
horror of the people for the expedition made the number of 
enlisted men fall short ; but to these were added a physician, 
a surgeon, and an apothecary, several musicians to sustain the 
drooping spirits of the colonists, and priests to take up the mis- 
sionary work which Father Boil and his sympathizing colleagues 
had abandoned. 

Among the salaried instruments of Fonseca's malice was one 
Ximeno Breviesca, paymaster under him, and a ready minion of 
his plottings against Columbus. He was a Jew who, as De 
Lorgues says, had found it convenient to accept baptism after 
the conquest of Granada. Though assuming the name of a 
Christian, he was an alien to every Christian virtue. He was a 
genial tool of a Christian official whose conduct has been univer- 
sally condemned by every Christian writer as a blemish upon, 



ON COLUMBUS. 345 

the sacred character he bore. Not content with having delayed 
the third voyage for nearly two years, Fonseca hounded the 
admiral with persecution even to the day of his departure, fol- 
lowing him up in this way to the port of San Lucar de Barrameda, 
and there even to the water's edge and on board his own ship 
as he entered it to embark. Ximeno was the useful man for this 
work of Fonseca, for he it was who dogged the steps of the 
admiral now with open abuse from place to place, from the 
shore to the ship. Insulted by this miscreant in the presence of 
his officers and crew, the long-patient admiral could no longer 
restrain his just anger. " His heart at such moments," says the 
eulogist of the admiral,' the Count de Lorgues, alluding to his 
custom of commencing every Yoyage with prayer, ' ' super- 
abounded with Christian charity ; he was, therefore, ready to 
pardon and consequently to bear injuries. But this day the 
offence was so grievous, so intolerable by its persistence and 
bravado, that the old man, now an admiral, remembered what 
he owed to his rank. Impunity this time may be attended with 
disastrous consequences. The offence was given in the presence 
of the whole squadron, of the crowd on the quay, of some bandits 
and other criminals who were on board ; all these would take his 
patience for pusillanimity and cowardice. At the moment of 
departure it became, perhaps, necessary for the safety of the 
ships and the maintenance of discipline to prove on the spot 
that age had not reduced his vigor, and that he knew how to 
make his person respected as well as to have his orders exe- 
cuted. The patriarch of the ocean made a step toward his in- 
sulter, and with his fist dealt him a blow on his impudent face. 
The miserable wretch fell down, stunned. The admiral limited 
himself to giving a few kicks to this vile snarler, who fled in the 
midst of hootings, concealing under his humiliation and forced 
tears his secret joy, for from that moment his fortune was 
made."* It is impossible, however, to regard this account as 
historical. 

A regulated temper, a forbearing disposition, when once the 
barriers are broken down, gives vent to the long-accumulated 
indignation and sense of wrong. The enemies of Columbus 
were adepts at such things ; the snare had been laid for him. 



Dr. Barry's translation of De Lorgues' "Columbus," p. 362. 



346 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

and he had unguardedly fallen into it. Not only had he dis- 
played cruelty to the poor natives of Hispaniola, he had now in 
a Spanish port, under the very eyes of his sovereigns, brutally 
maltreated one of their subjects, and an officer of the crown. The 
accusations of Pedro Margarite, Father Boil, of Juan de Aguado, 
and so many others were claimed to have been proved to be well 
founded by this very act of the accused. Columbus had a pre- 
sentiment of the use his enemies would make of this incident. 
He sailed on the enterprise with this load upon his heart, accom- 
panied by the unjust denunciations of his enemies and of the 
populace, and followed by cruel execrations. But the infamous 
Ximeno, hireling of the incumbent Fonseca, became an object 
of sympathy and favor, and while Columbus was insulted, his 
insulter received pity, consolation, and indemnity. Of this inci- 
dent, so unimportant in itself, but magnified by the enemies of 
Columbus, Mr. Irving writes : ' ' As Ximeno was a creature of 
the invidious Fonseca, the affair, was represented to the sover- 
eigns from the most odious point of view. Thus the generous 
intentions of princes and the exalted services of their subjects 
are apt to be defeated by the cold and crafty men in place. By 
this implacable hostility to Columbus, and the secret obstruc- 
tions which he threw in the way of the most illustrious of human 
enterprises, Fonseca has insured perpetuity to his name, coupled 
with the contempt of every generous mind." * 

Now all was ready ; the admiral, inspired with hopes and 
purposes second only to those he entertained on his first voyage, 
sailed from the port of San Lucar de Barrameda on May 30th, 1498. 
The admiral resolved to give the name of the Most Holy Trinity 
to the first land he should discover, and he determined, with the 
help of the Holy Trinity, under whose patronage he placed this 
voyage, to pass beyond the region of islands and to set his foot 
upon terra firvia, whose continental proportions his good ships 
would demonstrate to the world. His mind was filled with well- 
digested data, which induced him to steer to the south, because 
he had treasured up the statements of the inhabitants of the 
Caribbean Sea, that to the south there stood a vast land of con- 
tinental proportions, and he had observed that the island of Cuba 
made an extended sweep to the south, by which he thought was 



* Irving's " Columbus," vol. ii., p. lOO. 



ON COLUMBUS. 34/ 

indicated the lay of successive lands of which that island, as he 
believed, formed a part. He was confirmed in this view by the 
opinion of King John II. of Portugal, and by a letter he had 
formerly received from the learned lapidary, Jayme Ferrer, who 
had written to him at the request of the queen, and whose 
acquaintance he had since then and recently made at Burgos. 
He formed his theories also upon statements made by the inhab- 
itants of Hispaniola in relation to a race of black men, who had 
formerly come to their country, and upon the assay made of their 
javelin heads, composed of a metal they called guanin, showing 
a combination of eighteen parts of gold, six of silver, and eight 
of copper. From his information and study of the subject he 
was convinced of the existence of a black race inhabiting vast 
■countries near the equator, rich in the precious metals and 
favored in their climate, soil, and wealth. He felt quite sure 
that his new southern route would solve these momentous ques- 
tions. 

Information of a French fleet cruising off Cape St. Vincent 
caused Columbus to vary his course to the southwest, and on 
June 7th he arrived at Porto Santo, where he heard mass and 
took in wood and water ; touching also at Madeira, he took in 
supplies and steered for the Canaries. Arriving at Gomera, on 
June 19th, he saw in port a French cruiser holding two Spanish 
prizes, which, alarmed at his arrival, immediately took its depar- 
ture. He at first thought the prizes were merchant ships, but 
on learning their true character, he gave chase by sending out 
three of his vessels ; but the fugitives had made sufficient distance 
to escape. But on board of one of the prizes, six Spanish 
prisoners, on seeing their countrymen approaching, rose up 
against their captors ; this the Spanish caravels captured, and 
brought her back triumphantly to port. The prisoners were 
exchanged for six Spaniards carried off by the French cruiser, 
and the recaptured prize was returned to its captain. The fleet 
left Gomera on June 21st, and on arriving off the island of Ferro, 
in his solicitude for his colony at Isabella, Columbus sent forward 
three of the vessels to relieve the colonists, who were in need of 
supplies. These vessels were commanded respectively by Alonzo 
Sanchez de Caravajal, a most worthy man ; Pedro de Arana de 
Cordova, brother of Donna Beatrix Enriquez, his second wife, 
the mother of Fernando Columbus, cousin of Diego de Arana, 



348 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

the commander of the ill-fated fortress of La Navidad ; and the 
third ship b}' Juan Antonio Columbus, of Genoa, a relative of 
the admiral, one possessed of the capacity and virtues of the 
family. The three captains were given the command of the little 
fleet in alternation, a week at a time, receiving full instructions 
as to the route, and also on arriving- in sight of Hispaniola to 
steer for the south side and the port of the new town, which he 
supposed had been founded in the mouth of the Ozema, agree- 
ably to orders carried out by Coronel. 

Columbus with the remaining three ships turned his course 
toward the torrid zone, still invoking, as he had done when he 
commenced the voyage, the name of the Most Holy Trinity. 
His own ship was decked, while the other two were only caravels 
of trade. A severe attack of gout assailed him as he reached the 
tropics, and this caused him fever and intense pain ; yet he con- 
tinued, with characteristic energy and mental pov/er, to direct 
every progress of the voyage. He arrived at the Cape de Verde 
Islands on June 27th, where he made but a short stay, as he 
found it impossible to procure certain provisions he needed, 
such as goat's meat for the voyage and cattle for the colony. 
Still suffering greatly from the depressing effects of an insalu- 
brious climate, and leaving the barren island of Buena Vista, on 
July 5th, he steered to the southwest, intending to persevere in 
this route, in spite of adverse currents and winds, until he crossed 
the equinoctial line and found the terra firnia in the West Indies. 
Reaching , the fifth degree of north latitude on July 13th. the 
admiral and all his crews suffered intensely from scorching 
heats in dead calms. In the midst of his agonies of pain, in- 
tensified by the torrid sun and calm, he used extraordinary 
vigilance in watching the currents of the winds and the ocean, 
and studying the phenomena of nature. In consequence of the 
opening of the seams of his ships by the solar heat, he resolved 
to change his course to the direct west in hope of reaching a 
port sooner, and he observed, on passing the papal line of de- 
marcation, one hundred leagues west of the Azores, that the 
climate and atmosphere changed. In changing his course to 
west, he thus recorded his sentiments, after fervent recourse to 
prayer : ' ' After that I resolved, if it should please the Lord to 
send me wind and a propitious time, to leave the latitudes in which 
I found myself, to push no farther to the south, but, without 



ON COLUMBUS. 349 

retrograding, to sail to the west, until I would find the tempera- 
ture I had met in the latitude of the Canaries, and then to steer 
to the south." 

The ships, as he anticipated, now passed out of the unfavor- 
able atmosphere into a serene sky and favoring winds, and on 
reaching this region he had intended to sail south and then again 
west ; but he continued his westward course until he thought he 
was in the longitude of the Caribbee Islands, and then, in his 
distress, he changed his course northward in order to reach one 
of them as soon as possible. Not only were his vessels leaking, 
there was no wine, the provisions had spoiled, and each ship 
had on board only one cask of water. 

At this perilous juncture, on July 31st, Alonzo Perez Nizzardo, 
one of the mariners, about midday saw in the distance the sum- 
mits of three mountains, and joyously exclaimed, Land ! It 
seemed about fifteen leagues distant, and as the ships approached, 
the three mountains seemed united into one toward the base, 
thus recalling to the devout mind of Columbus the Holy Trinity, 
the three persons in one God, in whose honor he had commenced 
his voyage. In a transport of religious fervor he fulfilled his 
promise, and called the land La Trinidad. Columbus ever re- 
garded this fortunate discovery of land as miraculous, and, as 
Munoz relates, a signal favor of God.* 

The admiral coasted from the eastern end of Trinidad, to 
which he gave the name of Punta de la Galera, from a prom- 
inent rock rising from the sea so as to resemble a galley under 
sail, westward in search of a safe place of landing, to obtain 
water. The country was fresh and verdant, and, as he wrote 
to the sovereigns, resembling the fine Spanish province of 
Valencia in early spring. Coming to a point where water was 
obtained, pure and abundant, he called it Punta de la Playa. 
Here were seen the footprints of men, who had suddenly fled, 
and of animals at rest, the latter supposed to be those of the deer. 

An event now occurred of scarcely less importance than the 
discovery of the first land of the new world : it was the discoyery 
of the continent. Looking to the south a long and low stretch 
of coast appeared, broken by numerous channels of water ; and. 



* Munoz, "Hist, del Nuevo Mundo," lib. vi., §23; Irving's "Life of Colum- 
bus," vol. ii., p. 108. 



350 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

supposing it to be an island, and still moved with his never-failing- 
sense of the divine guidance, he called it, according to Irving and 
Tarducci, the Sacred Isle, La Isla Santa. While these authors 
speak of the admiral's having no conception of the continent 
which he then actually discovered, the Count de Lorgues, ever 
prone to the marvellous, writes : " Although there was no 
index to make him suppose that these islands were formed by 
the embrouchiire of a great river, he had a feeling something 
uncommon, strange, and inexplicable in regard to the nature 
of these islands ; for, far from giving a collected name to them, 
he designated the country by the name of Tierra de Gracia 
(Land of Grace), because the grace of God had alone conducted 
him there, and he did not speak of islands in this part of his 
report." But Mr. Irving admits that Columbus " now for the 
first time beheld that continent, that Terra Firma, which had been 
the object of his earnest search." * The first sight of the conti- 
nent was gained on August ist, 1798. It was, however, after 
passing into the Gulf farther that Columbus saw the land to 
which he gave the name of the Land of Grace. Conjecture was 
now ended. That Columbus realized then and there that he had 
discovered the continent is not now a matter of mere conjecture. 
Mr. Fiske saj's : ' ' Presently, finding that the water in the Gulf 
was fresh to the taste, he gradually reasoned his way to the cor- 
rect conclusion, that the billows which had so nearly over- 
whelmed him must have come out from a river greater than any 
he had ever known or dreamed of, and that so vast a stream of 
running water could be produced onl)- on land of continental 
dimensions. This coast to the south of him was, therefore, the 
coast of a continent, with indefinite extension toward the south, 
a land not laid down on Toscanelli's or any other map, and of 
which no one had until that time known anything." Columbus, 
in his own language to Ferdinand and Isabella, describes the 
river as flowing from a land of infinite extent, and of which no 
previous knowledge had anywhere existed in Europe. f 

The fleet continued to the southwest end of Trinidad, and on 
August 2d he named it Point Avenal ; it stretched toward a 



* Barry's De Lorgues' " Columbus," p. 370 ; Irving's " Columbus," vol. ii., p. no, 
and farther on p. 114. 

f Fiske's " Discovery of America," vol. i., pp. 493, 494. 



ON COLUMBUS. 351 

similar point of Terra Firma, a narrow pass dividing them, in 
the centre of which was a high rock, to which he gave the name 
of El Gallo. Having anchored the ships here, as they were 
nearing their anchorage a large canoe, containing twenty-five 
Indians, approached within bow-shot, and hailed them in an 
unknown tongue. The tempting offer of trinkets having failed 
to allure them to the ships, the power of music with Spanish 
dances on deck was tried, but this latter proved less successful, 
for the men who had remained two hours gazing in wonder at 
what they saw, with paddles in hand ready for flight, took this 
for a hostile sign, and fled precipitately to a distance, discharging 
their arrows at the admiral's ship, and receiving from him in 
return a couple of cross-bow missiles. They were not so shy of 
the caravels, however, but approached and parleyed with the 
pilot, and accepted presents with delight. They invited the 
pilot on shore, and on his acceptance of the invitation, they went 
ashore to welcome him. But when they saw him go first to 
the admiral's ship, which they took for the warship, they sprang 
into the canoe and disappeared. These natives were well formed 
young men, with no dress except cotton fillets around their 
heads and colored cloths of cotton about their loins ; and they 
were well armed with bows and with arrows feathered and tipped 
with bane, and in their hands were seen the first bucklers ob- 
served in the Western Hemisphere by th^ Spaniards. 

Columbus made, as was his custom, minute observations of 
the' natives, whom he was surprised to find not of the African 
type, but rather fairer than those more north of the equator, 
and with" long hair and handsome forms ; and of the climate, 
which he also to his surprise found more temperate and agree- 
able than that nearer the equator. Having landed, the Spaniards 
found the only water obtainable was procured by sinking pits 
in the sand. Columbus observed, with astonishment and fear, 
the waters strangely agitated, boiling, hissing, and raging to 
such an extent as to render the anchorage insecure. He called 
the pass the Serpent's Mouth. At night he saw a huge and 
raging surge of the sea rushing toward his ship, which was 
struck by it, was lifted up to a perilous height, while another 
ship was wrenched from its anchorage. He sent the boats 
next morning to take the depths in the Serpent's Mouth, and 
explore it far enough to learn whether the ships could pass 



352 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

through, and he was rejoiced at their report of deep waters for 
the passage of the ships away from this dangerous anchorage. 
With a favorable wind now springing up, the admiral soon found 
himself in a tranquil gulf beyond. 

What could be more striking than the spectacle we now behold, 
the discoverer of the new world strugghng to explore more 
fully what he had discovered, and, for the first time, to deter- 
mine its geography and delineate its map ! Continuing his route 
to the northwest point of Trinidad, he saw two high capes oppo- 
site each other, the one on the island of Trinidad, the other on 
the west ; and to the latter he gave the name of Land of Grace. 
The Count de Lorgues contends in effect that Columbus here 
felt an inward consciousness that this land was a continent, for 
the reason that the name bestowed was the Land of Grace and 
not the Island of Grace, and says that the admiral " did not 
speak of islands in this part of his report," * Yet such was the 
uncertainty and perplexity of the intricate maze of fact and con- 
jecture in which the mind was involved, that it is difificult to 
know what Columbus felt. He certainly was in search of the 
continent. In fact, he had now found it. 

Between the two capes another pass, with a more violent cur- 
rent than that of the Serpent's Mouth, gave vent to the roaring 
and strusrsflinof tide, and to this was given the name of the 
Dragon's Mouth. From this formidable navigation he turned to 
the north, coasting along the inner coast of the Land of Grace, 
intending on reaching its end to sail northward through the 
open sea to Hispaniola. The country was magnificent in fine 
harbors, in cultivated fields, lofty forests, and great streams. 
Having already observed the freshness of the water, this close 
observer of nature saw with amazement that it grew more fresh 
as he advanced, and the sea was remarkably quiet. Little did 
he seem to know or conjecture that he was before and within 
the delta of the mighty river Orinoco. On Sunday, August 5th, 
Columbus, according to the Count de Lorgues, anchored, and, 
having landed, solemn possession was taken of the continent, 
and a larsre cross erected on the shore. But I can find elsewhere 



* Fiske's " Discovery of America," vol. i., pp. 490, 491 ; Winsor's "Columbus," 
etc., p. 354 ; " Life of Columbus," by the Count de Lorgues, translated by Dr. Barry, 
p. 370 ; Irving's " Columbus," vol. ii., p. 114. 



ON COLUMBUS. 353 

no confirmation of this statement.''" On the following day he 
held his first intercourse with the natives, who had proved them- 
selves so far timid and shy of these strange and fearful visitors. 
As usual, the timidity of the Indians was overcome by kindness 
and presents. Several of them were taken on board to serve as 
guides. These people were tall, finely formed, and graceful of 
motion. The men were armed with bows, arrows, and targets, 
and wore cotton cloths around their heads and loins, which were 
so elegantly wrought as to resemble silk ; but the women were 
entirely naked. Singularly enough, the sense of smell was the 
principal or usual means by which they tested everything, such 
as the presents, the ships, and the persons of the Spaniards. 
They informed the admiral that the name of the country was 
Paria, Proceeding farther along the coast a distance of eight 
leagues, to a point which he called the Needle, his eyes were 
ravished by beholding a country of unsurpassed richness and 
beauty. Its cultivated fields and orchards, fruits, fiowers, and 
birds of brilliant plumage won for it the name of the Gardens. 
Here the natives welcomed them with genuine hospitality, treat- 
ing them with a reverence inspired by their supposed descent 
from heaven. Gold and pearls were seen in abundance, the 
former of an inferior quality ; but the latter were fine. " I cast 

anchor," said the admiral, " in order to have more leisure to 

. • .... 

contemplate this verdure, this beautiful country and its inhabit- 
ants." The abundance of the pearls, which the natives wore in 
strings about their persons, and to which the}^ attached no ex- 
traordinary value, awakened the philosophic and commercial 
studies of the admiral, while they stimulated the cupidity of his 
followers. The former saw in them the confirmation of the 
theory of Jayme Ferrer, the eminent lapidary of Burgos, and he 
imagined he realized in this fair land of ideal beauty, where the 
dew of the atmosphere was clear and abundant as the oysters in 
the waters were unlimited, the realization of Pliny's beautiful 
3xt poetic fancy, that pearls were formed by the dewdrops falling 
into the mouth of the oyster. But Las Casas, with blended 
knowledge and fancy, dissipated the admiral's exuberant hopes 



* There is a partial confirmation of the landing, which one of the witnesses said was 
done by deputy, but this is denied by others. The condition of the admiral's health 
and his desire to reach Hispaniola are sufficient to discredit any statement as to his 
landing and holding religious services. 



354 <^LD AND NEW LIGHTS 

by the statement that the oysters of Paria were not the pearl- 
producing variety, while the peerless pearl, as if conscious of its 
value, with instinctive self-preservation buried itself in the 
deepest waters.* And yet it may be added that the exquisite 
rays of light and beauty from the pearl, piercing the deepest 
waters and seeking union with the solar rays, ever reached the 
surface and danced upon the rippling waves above. In contrast 
with the cupidity of the early European treasure-seekers of those 
adventurous days was the broad and noble aspirations of the 
admiral, who saw in these gems emblems of divine beauty, and 
the links that were to unite the most distant nations in the bonds 
of commerce ; or, may we not recall the elegance of Milton's 
line, each word a pearl of beauty, when, following the theory of 
Pliny, he exclaimed, 

" And those pear/s of dew she wears !" 

Leaving the Gardens on August loth, the admiral directed his 
fleet westward ; but as he advanced the water became sweeter 
and sweeter, and a caravel — the Correo — sent to explore returned 
with the report of successive gulfs, in which the water was sweet 
and fresh ; and though the report represented these lands thus 
divided by small passes or gulfs of water to be an united land, 
the conclusion was so fixed in his mind that the immediate lands 
he saw seemed like islands, and he named two of them Isabella 
and Tramontura. In fact, the first lands and waters opposite to 
Trinidad which he encountered were the delta of the Orinoco, 
and now he stood before the delta of the river Cuparipari, now 
known as the Paria. Led by the information of the Indians, he 
called the small gulf he now sailed across the Gulf of Pearls, 
though the keenest eyes could not discern the dance of the pearl 
ray upon the waves. 

So sweet was the water that the admiral said, " I never drank 
such." Disappointed in finding here a passage to the north, he 
changed his course to the east on August nth, and on the 14th 
the ships were fearfully struggling to make their wa}' through 
the surging waters of the Dragon's Mouth. While in the middle 
of this pass the winds ceased, and it was only the impetuosity of 
the waters that carried him through safely to the open sea, 



* Las Casas, "Hist. Ind.," cap. 136; Pliny's Works; Irving's "Columbus," 
vol. ii., p. 120 ; Barry's De Lorgues' " Columbus," p. 372. 



ON COLUMBUS. 35^ 

greatly to the relief of all on board. The urgency of his return 
to Hispaniola prevented him from again visiting the Gulf of 
Pearls, and from making an exploration of the fresh waters he 
had just visited ; for he had wished to test the report brought 
by the Correo, that the vast volume of seething fresh waters 
came from the mouths of rivers, upon which subject he felt un- 
settled, believing it incredible that mere island streams could 
produce such a vast volume of fresh water, or impart to them 
such turbulent velocity. Here it is manifest that the vision of 
the continent had risen and shaped itself in his vigorous and 
intelligent mind. It was now realit3\ 

Passing westward from the Dragon's Mouth, he saw numerous 
islands ; named two islands he saw Assumption and Conception, 
now supposed to be Tobago and Granada ; on the 15th the islands 
of Margarita and Cubaqua, the last of which he approached to 
obtain a supply of wood and water. Now he seemed to be in 
the region of pearls, for on approaching Cubaqua he saw Indian 
girls fishing for these precious gems, and on sending some of the 
men ashore he procured from the natives, in exchange for broken 
fragments of Valencian plates and other trifles, pearls to the 
amount of three pounds* weight. Some of the pearls were very 
large, and the collection, when sent to Spain, formed a grateful 
specimen of the products of the new empire of Ferdinand and 
Isabella. 

The admiral was most anxious to continue his westward ex- 
ploration of the northern shore of Paria, and to reach the regions 
most abundant, according to Indian representations, in pearls, 
but a long-continued and increasing attack of ophthalmia neces- 
sitated his return to Hispaniola. Turning all the prows toward 
that island, and leaving from necessity all further nautical obser- 
vations and reports to his pilots and seamen, he hastened thither 
to recruit his suffering health, and with the intention of sending 
his brother Bartholomew to continue and complete the explora- 
tion of this interesting region. 

In passing away from the exterior coast of Paria the admiral 
noticed in front of the cape three peaks, three islands, to which he 
gave the name of The Witnesses, as the Count de Lorgues writes : 

No doubt in allusion to the three miraculous events of his third 
voyage, which was undertaken in the name of the adorable 
Trinity." The Conception and Assumption were named by 



356 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

him in honor of the Blessed Virgin. Carried westward by the 
strong currents of fresh water issuing from the Dragon's Mouth, 
he sighted the island of Hispaniola on August 19th, at a point 
fifty leagues west of the point of his desire, the river Ozema, 
and anchored off the small island of Beata, Having sent ashore 
and procured as a messenger one of the natives of Hispaniola, 
he dispatched a letter to his brother, the Adelantado, announcing 
his arrival. Here having seen a native bearing a cross-bow, an 
arm not permitted in the trade between the Spaniards and the 
Indians, he feared that some calamity had befallen his colony, as 
the weapon must have been taken from some murdered Spaniard. 
Again setting sail, he arrived on August 30th in the mouth of 
the river Ozema, but no seaport had been founded there as he 
expected. On the other hand, he had the happiness of being 
met here in a caravel by his brother Bartholomew, and the affec- 
tionate meeting between these two brothers is one of the most 
interesting pictures drawn by the pen of the historians of the 
new world. He arrived at Isabella with shattered health. His 
grand discoveries during his third voyage were such that any 
one of them would have been enough to immortalize his name. 
The repose he now needed, and which he had hoped to find, was 
denied to him by the stirring events in the grand and unparal- 
leled enterprise in which he was embarked, of bringing face to 
face the inhabitants of two worlds. The old world under his 
leadership was advancing to the conquest of the new. There 
was no repose for such a man ! 

The extraordinary phenomena of nature which Columbus 
observed and sagaciously pondered over, even while racked with 
pain and prostrated with illness, were wholly without precedent 
in the previous voyages, and were utterly new in cosmographic 
physiognomy. His theories and speculations in relation to them 
form one of the important and interesting chapters in the history 
of the human mind, and in the progress of mankind in its efforts 
to assert its dominion over the earth. The soil of these new 
countries, the exuberance of spontaneous vegetation, the differ- 
ence between the color of the natives and of those of Africa 
under the same latitude, the mildness of the climate, the varia- 
tions in the heavenly constellations, the movements and directions 
of the waves and currents, the floods of struggling fresh waters 
apparently in the midst of the sea — these and all other signs and 



ON COLUMBUS. 357 

Strange appearances of things in the skies, atmosphere, earth, and 
ocean impressed his active and studious mind with the convic- 
tion that he was now in a perfectly new and before unseen grand 
division of the earth, one of its principal continents, and in 
a part where its shape and elevation were exceptional and 
phenomenal. While he regarded these lands as the extreme 
limits of Asia, he was led to regard the vastness of the solid sur- 
face of the earth as far exceeding the surface of the waters, 
because Asia, as known and as then supposed to be extended 
by his discovery, if one solid continent, would cover a vast 
portion of the earth's surface. And yet, as the Count de 
Lorgues contends, he knew, without our being able to tell how, 
that beyond that continent, from which there came so large a 
river, there w^s still an ocean. He had many authors at his 
ready command to support his theories, and in his letter or 
report to the Spanish sovereigns he quotes from Aristotle and 
Seneca and from St. Augustine and Cardinal Pedro de Alliaco. 
Was it not also revealed in Esdras that of the entire surface of 
the earth six parts were dry land and one part was water ? He 
had gone farther than any other discoverer to solve this problem, 
then new, but now so familiar. 

In all the early stages of human knowledge there is much of 
error mingled with new and prodigious truths ; in this remark- 
able instance, however, the world accords to Columbus the great 
glory of having discovered the western continent. 

Advancing into the realm of cosmographic theory, deduced 
from the apparent features of earth, sea, and skies, Columbus 
gave to the world his theory of the earth's shape. While Aris- 
totle located the highest culmination of the earth under the Ant- 
arctic Pole, and other scholars had placed it under the Arctic 
Pole, he argued, from all he saw and felt, that it was in fact 
under the equator. He alluded in cogent terms to the change 
he observed in the sky and stars, the temperature of the air and 
the calmness of the ocean, the variations of the needle from 
northeast to northwest, the apparent diurnal circle described 
by the north star, and other physical phenomena which occur- 
red after he had passed the ideal line drawm from pole to 
pole one hundred leagues west of the Azores. On his third 
voyage, so much farther to the south, he passed from a 
region of intense heat to one of equable and delightful tem- 



358 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

perature ; the ocean was free from winds, the weather serene, 
the air most pure, the soil most enriched. He saw his ships 
struggling to surmount an immense and continental swelling of 
the waters of the earth toward the heavens, and the lands, in 
reaching them, must also rise in the same proportion, for he saw 
and felt and tasted the fresh waters rushing in immense volumes 
upon the lower earth from above, and sweetening the ocean for 
many leagues. Perceiving this swell of the planet at the equator, 
he arrived at the conclusion that the earth is shaped like a pear, 
and that the elevated part of the pear, ending in the stem, repre. 
sented the highest elevation and shape of the earth under the 
equator. He goes further; and conjectures that the culminating 
point of the equatorial swelling is the site of the terrestrial Para- 
dise, the home of our first parents, the Mosaic scene of the 
creation of man. 

However mingled with fanciful theories his conclusions may 
have been and are now proved to have been by much later 
scientific knowledge, the great historic fact remains triumphant 
that Christopher Columbus was the unchallenged discoverer of 
the equatorial swelling. While he erred only in degree in re- 
lation to the elevation of the earth, he was far in advance of the 
contemporaneous scientific world, for scientists have now ascer- 
tained and decided that the earth is a spheroid, slightly elevated 
in circumference at the equator, thus substantially verifying the 
fact discovered by Columbus, though not confirming his con- 
clusions therefrom. The location of Paradise is still a subject of 
learned speculation. 

We have already related how Columbus saw and was amazed 
at the rush of fresh waters through the passes and channels of 
the Paria Gulf, and how with warmth of temperature they made 
their way northward and carried onward his fleet, in its course 
to Hispaniola, far to the west of his reckonings. It was in these 
new and closely studied phenomena that the admiral became the 
discoverer of the oceanic current known in our times as the Gulf 
Stream.* 

A remarkable trait in the character of Columbus was his power, 
physical, moral, and mental, to make any exertion, or to 
perform any work, however difficult to others, under the most 



On this subject see Irving, Tarducci, De Lorgues, Winsor, and other historians. 



ON COLUMBUS. 359 

severe prostrations of bodily disease or of mental distress. The 
report or relation of this voyage, which he wrote to the sover- 
eigns, was dictated by him to his secretary at sea, from his sick- 
bed, while racked with the pains of gout, tortured with violent 
.and acute ophthalmia, exhausted in body, fatigued beyond ordi- 
nary endurance by the watchings and labors of this voyage, 
almost blind, struggling in the service of an ungrateful king, 
expanding by his genius the realms of the world, and returning 
to the scenes of his solicitude and struggles, the first colony of 
Europeans in the new world, from whose past disasters he drew 
the sad anticipations of strife and trouble. Yet he continued to 
observe every sign that nature gave, every pulsation of ocean, 
every feature of the earth, every breath of the atmosphere, every 
phenomenon of the heavens ; he had them all recorded. His mind, 
unclouded by illness or pain ; his memory, stored with consider- 
able learning and science of the past and present ; his clear judg- 
ment — all these united in the preparation of that document which 
aroused the mind of Europe, and advanced the world beyond the 
achievements of past centuries. Of it the Count de Lorgues 
rather extravagantly writes : " This document bears the charac- 
ter of improvision, giving utterance to the abundance of his 
thoughts. The condensed erudition of Columbus would be 
noticed there, if it did not totally disappear before the grandeur 
of the syntheses, the immensity of the views, the profoundness 
of the revelations, and the new speculations offered by him to 
the reflections of his contemporaries. This document contains 
intrinsic proofs of its being written during the passage from 
Margarita to Hispaniola." * 

Though on his arrival at Hispaniola he was almost blind, and 
pale, emaciated, and prostrated, he found the events which trans- 
pired during his absence had fanned the previous discontents into a 
flame. The mute prophecy of the cross-bow he saw in the hands 
of an Indian at the river Ozema became realized by the disorder 
and violence prevailing on his arrival. Wrecked in health him- 
self, he had now to witness the wreck of all his hopes. It was 
on March loth, 1496, that he had sailed for Spain, and he re- 



* De Lorgues' "Columbus," Dr. Barry, p. 380; Irving's "Columbus," pp. 128- 
36; Peter Martyr, dec. i., lib. vi., " Historia del Almirante," cap. 66; Navarrete, 
■"Colec. de Viajes," torn, i., p. 242 ; Munoz, " Hist, del Nuevo Mundo,"lib. vi., § 32. 



360 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

turned on August 30th, 1498, a period of eighteen months and 
twenty days. The provisions sent out on the three caravels 
under Pedro Alonzo Nino, in consequence of the misconduct of 
the Bureau of the Indies under Fonseca, were of bad quahty and 
had spoiled on the voyage, and fourteen months elapsed from 
this time to the arrival of the supplies sent by the admiral under 
Pedro Coronel. During this period no tidings had been received 
from the mother country ; the colonists considered themselves 
forgotten and doomed to perish in this remote wilderness ; their 
clothes, implements, tools, and utensils had worn out. The proud 
hidalgos and spirited young Spaniards, who had come out to 
amass golden fortunes, found themselves in rags, or wearing 
grotesque clothes made of the bark of trees or of native cotton. 
They all united in casting the blame of their ruin and humiliation 
upon their best friend, the admiral. 

The Adelantado took steps immediately, on the departure of the 
admiral, to carry out his brother's directions for the development 
and working of the mines of Hayna, and here was erected Fort 
San Christopher, called by the workmen the Golden Tower, 
from the grains of gold found in the stone and earth used in its 
erection. On the Ozema was erected Fort Isabella, afterward 
changed in name to San Domingo, the foundation of the present 
city of that name. This was done in compliance with the orders 
of the admiral, received at the time of the arrival of Coronel 
with provisions. Having a large force under his immediate 
command, while Don Diego remained at Isabella with the other 
forces and the colonists, he found it difficult to feed his men. 
The Indians had ceased to extend their primitive hospitality ta 
their celestial visitors, now their conquerors, and they themselves 
laid up no food in advance, but lived from hand to mouth. 
Having acquired many of the customs of their European con- 
querors, among which was that of exacting a price for all they 
parted with, they suffered all the time from the exactions of the 
tribute by their taskmasters. Having completed Fort Christo- 
pher, the Adelantado left a garrison there, and went with the re- 
mainder of his force to the Vega in order to exact the tribute from; 
Guarionex, his tributary caciques, and his subjects, from whom 
also he received food until the arrival of supplies from Spain. 
After completing the Fort San Domingo and garrisoning it, the 
Adelantado repaired with his remaining soldiers to the remote 



ON COLUMBUS. 361 

western province of Xaragua, which was ruled over by Behechio, 
with whom resided his sister, the widow of Caonabo, the beauti- 
ful Anacaona. She was not only beautiful in person and grace- 
ful in her carriage, she was intelligent, sagacious, and gifted with 
prudence and forethought. She and her. husband gave ample 
proof of the capacity of the American aborigines for receiving 
and developing our civilization, and their conduct and lives, 
on the whole, did not contrast unfavorably with those of their 
more favored European conquerors. 

Behechio was a ruler of ability and dignity ; he and his nation 
had neither recognized nor attacked the Castilian usurpation, 
and as his dominions were remote from the Spanish forts and 
settlements, this great cacique was content to remain inactive, 
especially as he had seen the combined strength of the island 
scattered and routed by Spanish soldiers. It was believed that 
" The Golden Flower" had greatly influenced her brother to a 
pacific policy. Why should they seek their own annihilation ? 
Might they not be left securely alone by the conquerors of the 
rest of the island ? Obedient to Spanish policy, the Adelantado 
regarded it as his duty to bring this inoflfensive and independent 
people under Spanish subjugation. In fact, it was regarded as a 
necessary measure, according to the views of European states- 
manship, that the Spanish soldiers must be kept busy at something, 
in order to prevent the spread in their ranks of still greater demor- 
alization than already existed, and to maintain their discipline. . 
Accordingly the Adelantado marched at the head of his forces, 
prepared for war, but under the pretext of going on an explor- 
ing expedition. Behechio, with a natural sense of pride and 
right, assembled an army of forty thousand men, divided into 
cohorts, for the defence of his dominions. At this juncture ' ' The 
Golden Flower," as a medium of peace, induced her brother to 
disband his army. The Adelantado also assured the chief in an 
interview that his intentions were friendly. The chief thus saved 
his people from slaughter, but did not secure them from becom- 
ing subject and tributary to the Spaniards. The Adelantado 
was invited to the royal residence, received with eminent dis- 
tinction, and entertained in regal style at a grand banquet, which 
was graced by the presence of " The Golden Flower." The 
skilful diplomacy of the Adelantado secured from the unsuspect- 
ing cacique the voluntary payment of tribute, which, however. 



362 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

as his dominions contained no gold, the Adelantado graciously 
consented to receive in provisions. The Spaniards were enter- 
tained with unstinted hospitality for several days, were quartered 
in the houses of the cacique and his people, and were amused 
with Indian games and exercises. One of the entertainments 
given in honor of the Spaniards was a mock battle between two 
squadrons of naked warriors armed with bows and arrows, and 
performed in a manner somewhat similar to a game of Moorish 
canes, with which the Spaniards had been familiar at home, and 
somewhat similar in its sanguinary results, and in the pleasure it 
gave to the Spaniards, to their national sport of the bull-fight. 
The contestants grew heated in the mock fray, four were killed, 
many were wounded, and greater carnage was about to follow, 
when the Adelantado and several of the cavaliers present re- 
quested the game to be stopped, though it is related that the 
brutal results had " seemed to increase the interest and pleasure 
of the spectators." 

Before the departure of the admiral for Spain he had found it 
necessary to impose severe restrictions on the search for gold by 
the Spaniards, and on the working of the newly discovered mines 
of Hayna. Hosts of covetous idlers and broken-down hidalgos 
from Spanish cities had come out to Hispaniola on this second 
voyage, dazzled by the specimens of gold brought back from the 
first voyage, and the colony contained many lawless adventurers, 
who respected no rights in the Indians, and outraged them in 
their property, their homes, and in all their dearest affections. 
It was necessary to impose restraint upon such outlaws. Hav- 
ing observed that the Indians themselves had attributed a certain 
value to gold, and in order to discover the richest beds they 
made long voyages and journeys and performed religious fasts, 
observed continency for twenty days, and other rites and cere- 
monies, the admiral threw around the precious metal some similar 
restrictions, based upon the holy purposes for which the gold was 
intended to be used, such as the rescuing of the Holy Sepulchre. 
With this view, he required of these desperadoes, who had 
sought their fortunes by attaching themselves to his, that they 
should reform their lives, refrain from violence, observe conti- 
nency, practise fasts, repent of their sins and approach the sacra- 
ments before they would be permitted to work the mines ; and 
he gave this license only to such as would lead a regular life, 



ON COLUMBUS. 363 

and receive the services of the priests or missionaries of the 
colony. Don Bartholomew had endeavored rigidly to carry out 
these measures of the admiral during the latter's absence. These 
regulations interfered with these avaricious adventurers and mal- 
contents, who had not been able to return to Spain with Aguado, 
and the discontents already existing now began to spread and 
assume a formidable shape. 

When the Adelantado returned to Isabella from Xaragua new 
sources of disaffection had been at work, and he immediately 
saw the fruits they produced. Death, hunger, improvidence, 
sickness, sloth, that had prevented the raising of food by the 
cultivation of an almost spontaneous soil, the recoil of the Indians 
from feeding their oppressors, the lust for gold, had produced 
misery, poverty, and insubordination. The most civilized people 
of Europe were actually starving, while they listlessly roamed 
over a soil which produced luxuriant crops in three or four weeks 
after the sowing of the seed. What a spectacle for savages to 
witness ! Don Bartholomew was, however, fertile in expedients. 
He ordered the building of two caravels ; he distributed the sick 
and feeble through the country, where better air and food were 
attainable ; and he prosecuted the work of erecting military 
posts and houses, five in number : the Esperanza, nine leagues 
from Isabella ; Santa Catalina, six leagues farther off ; Mag- 
dalena, four and a half leagues farther, and on the site of the 
first town of Santiago ; and Fort Conception, in the Vega, and 
near the residence of the cacique Guarionex. The construction 
of the caravels and the building of the forts had the temporary 
effect of relieving the tedium of the idle, and of occupying the 
thoughts and perhaps the hopes of the discontented. The city 
of Isabella was relieved of its vicious or useless population, and 
the Adelantado, leaving a sufficient garrison there, repaired with 
his best soldiers to San Domingo, near the newly discovered 
mines of gold. 

The pious missionaries who did not follow their superior, 
Father Boil, to Spain, and whose names were Roman Pane and 
Juan Borgognon, had been zealously laboring for the conversion 
of the Indians in the Vega. In one instance a family of sixteen 
embraced the faith under the example of Juan Mateo, and 
even the grand cacique Guarionex seemed on the eve of doing 
the same, when the reproaches and ridicule of his tributary 



364 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

caciques and people, and the outrages he received from the 
Christian Spaniards, and especially his latest wrong in the seduc- 
tion and outrage of his favorite wife by the Spaniards, repelled 
him from the temple he was about to enter. The chapel at the 
Vega mission was sacked and desecrated by the natives, and 
though the offenders met with agonizing deaths at the stake, by 
order of the Adelantado, the missionaries, with Juan Mateo, 
their convert, removed to another district. 

Punishments of such a cruel character did not make converts 
but rather enemies of the natives. Had mercy been extended to 
these poor people, much suffering and bloodshed that followed 
would have been spared. But in the position in which they 
stood Columbus and his brothers deemed it imperative on all 
occasions to inspire the natives with an overpowering idea of 
Spanish power and justice. It was thus that this vast and beauti- 
ful region was thrown into disorder, rebellion, bloodshed, and 
cruel conquest. Pacific of nature, Guarionex was goaded on by 
the appeals of his tributary caciques and his subjects to rebel 
against the tyranny of the Spaniards. The fate of the brave and 
powerful Caonabo and his people could not deter him from sa 
desperate an attempt, nor even a tradition in his family that a 
strange nation would come among them, make him and his 
people slaves and seize his country, could suppress the natural 
and righteous outbreak of an injured race. The courage of 
despair aroused the native tribes and their chiefs. A conspiracy 
was entered into secretly to massacre the Spaniards at Fort Con- 
ception, few in number ; and in order to allay suspicion at the 
simultaneous assembling of so many natives, the day for the 
payment of the tribute was selected for the purpose. Many 
thousands of Indians were assembled in the Vega on that day, 
and at a concerted signal they were to wreak vengeance on their 
oppressors. If the first blow struck at the Spanish usurpation 
proved successful, the insurgents would be emboldened to strike 
another and another, until the aborigines recovered their natural 
and pristine liberty and independence, for the first success would 
call out to arms the whole native population of Hispaniola. 

But the treachery of a native betrayed the conspirators. The 
doomed garrison at Fort Conception received a warning. The 
garrison sent a native with their letter of appeal to the 
Adelantado for assistance, and as the Indians had a superstitious 



ON COLUMBUS. 365 

fear of letters, so potent in their recent experiences to convey 
information, and so gifted as they believed with the power of 
speech, the letter was concealed in a reed or staff. The vigilant 
Indians intercepted the hastening courier, whose speed was his 
only betrayer ; but he assumed the role of a lame and sick man 
hastening home so successfully that he was permitted to con- 
tinue his journey. He reached the Adelantado at San Domingo, 
and that officer was the man for the emergency. With troops 
already exhausted by poor fare, hardships and long marches, he 
was yet on the spot just in time to save his countrymen. With 
characteristic skill and sagacity he divided his men into as many 
squads as there were caciques, and put an officer over each 
squad. The respective villages were quietly entered at mid- 
night, the fourteen caciques were seized, bound, and immediatel}^ 
hurried off and imprisoned in the fortress before their astonished 
people could lift a hand for them. Devoted to their chiefs and 
destitute of other leaders, the natives submitted, and piteously 
sued for the release of their chiefs, surrounding the fortress and 
sorrowfully, with grievous yells and doleful lamentations, implor- 
ing their release. The Adelantado acted with consummate 
ability. He caused two caciques, the ringleaders of the rebel- 
lion, to be executed, and the rest he released. Guarionex, so 
gentle and so reluctant to rebel, though so shamefully wronged, 
was pardoned, and the Spaniards who had committed the hein- 
ous outrage upon his wife received severe punishment. Favors 
and promises of favor were bestowed upon the released chiefs as 
inducements to them to maintain themselves and their people in 
peace and subjection. Guarionex in a public address exhorted 
his subjects to peace, and they in turn carried him on their 
shoulders to his home amid joyous songs and shouts of gratitude 
for the kind treatment he had received from the Spaniards. 
Peace now reigned in the Royal Vega by the address and vigor 
of the Adelantado, who had himself led the squad that captured 
the principal cacique, Guarionex. 

Revolts among his own people, growing out of the widespread 
discontent and the results of misconduct on the part of the col- 
onists, were not so easily handled. With characteristic sagacity 
the Adelantado kept the malcontents and all the soldiers and 
people as busily engaged as possible. Having completed the 
forts and the caravels, he made an expedition to Xaragua to 



366 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

receive the tribute of Behechio, Anacaona, and their people, for 
word was received that the cotton was ready for delivery to the 
tax-gatherer. Received with every mark of honor by his royal 
hosts, who not only paid tribute in sufficient cotton to fill a house, 
but also volunteered to give cassava bread without stint, the 
Adelantado and his followers were entertained continuously with 
feasts and games, and this beautiful region, remote and not yet 
wholly desolated by the march of civilization, presented a specta- 
cle of grandeur, peace, abundance, and native gentleness and 
grace that captivated the hearts of the Spaniards. The cotton 
and the grateful present of cassava bread were sent back in a 
caravel. The generous Behechio and the beautiful Anacaona 
lavished other presents upon their visitors from their long- 
treasured collections, such as beautiful and ingenious specimens 
of manufactured cotton, pottery of various and graceful forms, 
and tables, chairs, and other furniture wrought in ebony and 
other fine woods with skill and elegance astonishing in a barbar- 
ous people destitute of metallic tools or of the arts. When the 
caravel was about to sail the royal hosts and their people came 
down to the water in great numbers to see the great canoe and 
marvel at its wonderful size, shape, and motions. In turn the 
Adelantado entertained his native friends with music, the dis- 
charge of cannon, and the astonishing movements of the ship, 
which, to the amazement of the Indians, seemed perfectly under 
the control of the Spaniards. But the discharge of the cannon, 
in the ship spread dismay and fear among these gentle people ; 
the savages seemed so frightened that they were about to rush 
into the sea and drown themselves, and the dismayed Anacaona, 
stunned with fright, fell convulsively into the arms of the Ade- 
lantado. The caravel sailed for Isabella amid the admiring ex- 
clamations of Behechio and his people, and freighted with tribute 
for the government and bread for the hungry citizens of Isabella. 
The Adelantado, after giving presents freely to his generous 
hosts, returned overland to the city. 

The plots and conspiracies of civilized man were more deliber- 
ate, more organized, and more determined than the inconsiderate 
and sudden insurrections of the gentler Indians. The spirit of 
discontent, the disappointments of adventurers, the lust of gold, 
which had supplanted the works of industry and husbandry, and 
the machinations of enemies in both hemispheres, had sowed the 



ON COLUMBUS. 367 

seeds of trouble and disaster, of which the admiral and his 
brothers had now to reap the harvest. Aguado had found a 
congenial spirit in the very service of Columbus, in the person 
of Francisco Roldan, a man who from obscurity and ignorance 
had, by the favor and confidence of the admiral, been raised 
from one employment of profit and trust to another. From menial 
services in the admiral's household he was gradually promoted, 
and became alcalde or justice of the peace, and finally alcalde 
mayor, or chief justice. The meanness of his character would 
simply have escaped notice in his obscurity for want of oppor- 
tunity ; but in his responsible positions it overcame his honesty, 
his truth, his loyalty, and his cowardice. Aguado had already in- 
stigated him to revolt, and he went to work with method to de- 
velop his evil designs. Professing loyalty to the admiral, he 
commenced by insinuating charges and complaints against Don 
Bartholomew and Don Diego, who, as foreigners and men in 
authority, were easily assailed, however unjustly. He encour- 
aged the murmurs of the working classes, and pandered to the 
vices and violence of sailors, workmen, and criminals. He had 
learned from the unworthy commissary Aguado that the Bureau 
of the Indies at Seville, under Bishop Fonseca, was deadly hos- 
tile to the admiral, and that Pedro Margarite, Father Boil, and 
the malcontents already returned to Spain from Hispaniola 
would welcome any movement, however unjust or wicked, for 
his downfall and the failure of his grand enterprise. He formed 
his resolution to assassinate Don Bartholomew and place himself 
in command of the island of Hispaniola. An opportunity had 
presented itself, as was supposed, before the Adelantado de- 
parted for Xaragua to collect the tribute. A criminal named 
Berahona had been condemned to death. His crime is supposed 
to have been the outrage upon the wife of the chief Guarionex, 
and the Adelantado was to attend the execution. It would be 
easy to get up a disturbance or excitement of some kind on such an 
occasion, and in the melee the Adelantado could be assassinated as if 
by accident. Berahona was also a friend of Roldan and of others 
of the conspirators. This plot was defeated by the Adelantado's 
pardon of the condemned man, and his departure for Xaragua. ■ 

* Herrera, decad. i., lib. iii., cap. i. ; Las Casas, " Hist. Ind.," lib. i., cap. iir>; 
*• Hist, del Almirante," cap. 73 ; Barry's translation of De Lorgues' "Life of Colum- 
bus," p. 386 et seq. ; Irving's " Columbus," vol. ii., p. 162. 



368 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

During his absence in that province Roldan industriously 
prosecuted his nefarious purposes by bringing- into his conspiracy 
all the disaffected colonists, who were numerous. The return 
of the caravel to Isabella with the tribute paid by Behechio was 
availed of to openly demand that, instead of being drawn upon 
the shore, it should be sent to Spain for the purpose of obtaining 
relief for the colony, and threats were thrown out to seize it and 
return to Spain with complaints against the two brothers for 
their oppressions of the people. A tumult was being fomented. 
Roldan, by virtue of his office as chief justice, was about to 
assume command in the interests of peace and order in the city 
and colony, and Don Bartholomew and Don Diego, as the guilty 
causes of all these evils to the island, were to be put aside, per- 
haps murdered. Don Diego, finding his just and truthful expla- 
nations and appeals in behalf of order and authority ineffectual, 
sent Roldan, at the head of fort}" soldiers, to the Vega, under the 
pretext of overawing the natives, who had refused to pay their 
tribute, or seemed bent on rebellion. Roldan availed himself of 
this opportunity for gaining adherents to his side, and even for 
inducing the natives to unite in his disloyal work. He persuaded 
the soldiers under his command to join him in his plot, and dis- 
missing such as refused, he insolently returned to Isabella as a 
signal to his sympathizers there to unite with him in a demand 
to float the caravel and send her to Spain. The Adelantado had 
now returned to Isabella. Roldan was assuming great authority 
as chief justice, and the Adelantado, with characteristic firm- 
ness, peremptorily refused his demands, and gave Roldan and 
his following to understand that their designs were suspected. 

Roldan, who had latterly placed but little concealment over his 
purposes, now broke out in open defiance, and at the head of 
seventy well-armed and resolute men he marched out of Isabella 
toward the Vega, intending to set up an independent rule of his 
own in another part of the island. He endeavored, with some 
success, to seduce the Spanish soldiers quartered in the Indian 
villages through which he passed to join his forces, and by 
alternate force and persuasion endeavored to secure possession 
of Fort Conception, under Miguel Ballester, and of the military 
post at th.e village of Guarionex under Garcia de Barrantes. 
Failing in the last two efforts, he seized the provisions of the 
latter post, and thence marched with his augmented forces to 



ON COLUMBUS. 369 

the attack of Fort Conception. Such was the widespread dis- 
affection which Margarite, Father Boifl, Aguado, and Roldan 
had created throughout Hispaniola, conscious as they were that 
Fonseca at Seville was secretly if not openly sustaining them, 
that the Adelantado, usually so prompt, hesitated what to do. 
The Adelantado knew that many officials and leading men were 
in concert with Roldan, and he feared for the loyalty of Ballester, 
the commander of Fort Conception. But no sooner had he 
received a message from the latter, urging the sending of assist- 
ance, than he immediately sallied forth, and soon entered the fort 
w^ith his reinforcements. Uncertain of the strength of Roldan 
and his rebels, which was steadil}'' increasing, he deemed it 
prudent to try, in the first instance, the effect of an interview 
with the chief, and at his request Roldan repaired to Fort Con- 
ception, where the Adelantado parleyed with him from a win- 
dow. His expostulations were treated with defiance, his demand 
for the surrender of the rebels was received with impudent asser- 
tions of his own loyalty and the outlawry of the Adelantado and 
his brother. He refused to resign his office or to submit to a 
trial except on command of the king, and stoutly repelled all 
orders which might bring him in the power of the Adelantado, 
alleging that the latter sought his life. Feigning submission to 
authority, he offered to retire to such part of the island as Don 
Bartholomew might designate ; but on the latter naming the 
town of Diego Colon, the convert and interpreter who had been 
baptized in Spain, he abruptly refused, and, after insolently 
retiring, announced to his followers the enticing proposition of 
selecting for their retreat the attractive and beautiful province 
of Xaragua, where sloth, ease, lust, and abundance awaited their 
arrival. Availing himself of the absence of the Adelantado from 
Isabella, the rebels hastened thither and violently attempted to 
launch the caravel and sail to Xaragua. Don Diego, hearing the 
uproar, came forth with some of the loyal hidalgos, but finding 
himself powerless in the midst of such general disafTection, he 
was compelled to retire into the fortress. Several interviews 
led to no result, and when finally Roldan's offer to submit to his 
authority, provided he would renounce the Adelantado and set 
up an opposition, was refused with contempt, he marched out at 
the head of his lawless band to reach Xaragua by land. But 
assuming still to be himself in legitimate authority and the most 



370 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

loyal of all, he gave his lawless followers all they could seize 
from the public stores of arms, ammunition, and clothing, even 
carrying off or slaughtering the breeding stock of the colony. 
Taking the direction of the Vega, he endeavored by stratagem 
and fraud to get the Adelantado in his power, evidently intend- 
ing to kill him ; but that sagacious official was too much on his 
guard, and was fully conscious of his military inability to cope 
with so numerous a body of rebels. It even required within the 
garrison a great relaxation of his usual discipline, and resort ta 
liberal promises of rewards, to preserve them in loyalty, to keep 
them at their posts of duty, and from becoming disaffected by 
the prevailing atmosphere of disloyalty and rebellion. 

Roldan's efforts to gain the adherence of the garrison or tO' 
get the person of the Adelantado in his power proving unsuc- 
cessful, they were followed by the most criminal acts on his part 
and that of his following to destroy the government, to set up 
his own, and to gain the natives to his side. He denounced the 
Adelantado as a tyrant and oppressor, a foreigner and extor- 
tioner, and set himself up as the protector of the Indians. He 
took the Carib chief, Manicatex, into his aUiance, bestowing upon 
him presents and the title of brother, while he exacted and re- 
ceived from the deluded natives the payment of tribute and the 
most generous supply of provisions. He roamed arrogantly 
and lawlessly through the country, revelling in abundance, and 
with a numerous following of Spaniards and Indians, while the 
Adelantado was imprisoned in the fortress with only a handful 
of men, and on short rations. Manicatex and his people, in 
addition to food and tribute, collected all the gold they could 
find and placed it at the feet of the rebel chief, and feehng em- 
boldened by the dissensions of their conquerors, threw off all 
allegiance to the government, while they accepted willingly the 
more oppressive yoke of Roldan. The caciques and their tribes 
far and near joined in the rebellion and discontinued to send in 
their tribute to the lawful government. The Adelantado found his 
food, clothing, and ammunition becoming exhausted, his authority 
set at defiance, his own men wavering in loyalty and yielding to 
despondency, while confusion, anarchy, and crime reigned every- 
where. Bold as he was, and quick to decide and to execute a 
gallant exploit, Don Bartholomew was compelled to remain 
under the protection of his walls and guns, for he had received 



ON COLUMBUS. 3/1 

the most certain information that his life would be taken on the 
first opportunity. It was at such a desperate juncture that 
Coronel providentially arrived at the port of San Domingo with 
two ships, bringing supplies, reinforcements, royal documents 
confirming Don Bartholomew in his title and authority as 
Adelantado, and tidings of the admiral's strength and favor with 
the sovereigns in Spain, and of his speedy arrival in Hispaniola 
with a large and powerful fleet containing all things necessary 
for the relief of the colony and for the maintenance of order and 
authority. 

Roldan and his followers were dismayed, but not reduced to 
submission. The Adelantado repaired immediately to San Do- 
mingo, and, though his forces were greatly augmented, the 
needs of the soldiers relieved, and his authority sustained, he 
prudently resorted to leniency and persuasion, rather than force, 
to dispel the rebellion. But Roldan had gone too far to recede. 
He treated Coronel, whom the Adelantado had sent to parley 
with him, as a traitor, and spurned all offers of pardon, protesting 
his readiness to acknowledge the authority of the admiral on his 
arrival, and thus finall}^ drawing upon himself and his men the 
public proclamation of the Adelantado that they were traitors, 
and to be treated as such. Fearing lest his men might be influ- 
enced by the improved condition of the government and the per- 
suasions of the lo)'^al Spaniards about San Domingo, Roldan and 
his lawless partisans now commenced their bold and reckless 
march to their favorite and chosen rendezvous, the beautiful and 
voluptuous region of Xaragua, where they expected to revel in 
luxury and to indulge in every unholy passion. 

One of the fruits of Roldan's rebellion was the second insur- 
rection of the deluded and unfortunate Guarionex, the cacique 
of the Royal Vega. Seduced by Roldan's persuasions and by 
his promises of assistance, and emboldened by the distracted state 
of the country and the divisions among the Spaniards, he and his 
tributary cacique entered into a conspiracy to rise upon their 
oppressors and make a last effort to recover their freedom and 
redeem their country from the grasp of their conquerors. The 
Spanish soldiers quartered in small numbers in the villages were 
to be slaughtered, while Guarionex and his warriors were to 
attack Fort Conception. The full moon was fixed upon as the 
signal for the uprising ; but one of the leading caciques mistook 



372 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

the night, attacked prematurely the soldiers quartered in his 
village and was repulsed. On his flying to Guarionex for pro- 
tection, that chief, in his rage and disappointment, inflicted upon 
him the punishment of instant death. These events disclosed 
the conspiracy to the Spaniards. The Adelantado, with his 
accustomed vigor, marched out with a strong force to the Vega 
to suppress every vestige of the uprising, but the unfortunate 
Guarionex, in despair, had fled with his family and a few faithful 
followers to the distant and lofty mountainous region of Ciguay, 
and threw himself upon the generous protection of its noble 
cacique, the brave Mayobanex, who received him with open 
heart and hand, and vowed to protect and defend him to the end, 
and to share his fate, whatever it might be. Thus we see, under 
the first advances of civilization in the new world, that beautiful 
and enchanting region, which, when first seen by the Spaniards, 
ravished all their senses with admiration and delight, now deso- 
lated and despoiled, its once happy chieftain a suppliant and an 
impoverished wanderer, its people destroyed, its grandeur and 
beauty wasted, its gardens and orchards desolated. Well has 
Las Casas, that steadfast friend of the Indians, taught us a moral 
lesson in pointing out the natural virtues of the untutored savages 
in the generous reception of the unfortunate Guarionex by the 
noble Mayobanex — a striking contrast to the crimes and vices 
then prevailing among the more enlightened and instructed 
Christian conquerors of the island ! * 

The once peaceful Guarionex, feeling as he imagined secure in 
his mountain retreat and encouraged by his native allies, essayed 
to become the avenger of his own and his people's wrongs. 
Watching his opportunities, he made descents upon the plains 
to cut off straggling or exposed parties of a few Spaniards, and 
even attacked and burned the Indian villages which adhered to 
the Spaniards, destroying the inhabitants and ruining their fields 
and orchards. Don Bartholomew Columbus took effectual 
measures to promptly suppress these hostile struggles of an 
already conquered race. At the head of ninety soldiers, some 
cavalry, and a band of friendly Indians he advanced, through 
narrow and dangerous defiles, and having reached the summit 



* Peter Martyr, decad. i., cap. 5 ; Las Casas, " Historia Ind.," lib. i., cap. 121, ms. ; 
Irving's "Columbus," vol. ii., p. 177 ; Tarducci's "Life of Columbus," translation 
by Henry F. Brownson, vol. ii., p. 115. 



ON COLUMBUS. 373 

of the Ciguay Mountains, he descended to the plains beyond 
without encountering- an enemy ; but the latter was in ambush, 
and it was only by capturing one of the Indian scouts that he 
avoided a terrific slaughter. Now he cautiously proceeded, and 
he possessed such advantages over his naked and undisciplined 
adversaries that an Indian army of six thousand could do no 
more than discharge their missiles and then fly and disperse in 
the woods and ravines. A few Spaniards were wounded with 
arrows or lances, and a few of the Indians were killed. Pursuit 
of such a foe in their own country was of little avail. Con- 
tinuing his march toward Cabron, the residence of Mayobanex, 
the Adelantado demanded of that chief the surrender of Guario- 
nex, with promises of rewards or threats of punishment. But 
the noble chief replied, " Tell the Spaniards that they are bad 
men, cruel and tyrannical ; usurpers of the territories of others, 
and shedders of innocent blood. I desire not the friendship of 
such men. Guarionex is a good man ; he is my friend, he is my 
guest, he has fled to me for refuge. I have promised to protect 
him ; I will keep my word." 

Answers such as this, pronounced under less heroic circum- 
stances, occurring in Greek and Roman history or even in more 
modern times, have become immortalized in classic prose and 
verse. This instance of barbarian heroism will compare with 
the defence of Thermopylae or any great event in Roman hero- 
ism. Well has Mr. Irving called it "magnanimous," and the 
learned Francesco Tarducci calls it " the most magnanimous and 
sublime answer in all history." But the stern nature of the 
Adelantado regarded it as an insolent bravado and menacing 
insult. He was as quick in executing his purpose as he was 
prompt in forming it. He immediately destroyed with fire all 
the villages in the neighborhood, and saw the inhabitants, men, 
women, and children, the sick, the infirm, and the aged fleeing 
from the homes which they had acquired by a good title from 
the common father of the human race. This was followed with 
a threat to Mayobanex that unless he gave up Guarionex he and 
his people and his dominions should share the same fate by fire 
and sword. But the heroic cacique stood firm before the threats 
of the Spaniards, and resisted the entreaties of his panic-stricken 
people. He sent for the hounded Guarionex and renewed his 
promise of protection and defence, or to share his fate. Another 



374 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

Spanish embassy was sent, and its two members, a Spaniard and 
an Indian, were put to death in sight of the Adelantado, to show 
him that Spaniards and Indian traitors were mortal, and that he 
appealed to his natural right to defend his own against such 
ruthless invaders. Yielding to his anger and to his stern nature, 
the Adelantado marched at once, at the head of his entire force, 
on these brave mountaineers ; but the large army of Mayobanex, 
panic-stricken at the sight of the steel-clad and invincible Span- 
iards, dispersed and fled, and the noble chieftain was left 
with only a handful of men — a mere body-guard — for himself 
and his family. His cause was now desperate. With his family 
he was compelled to fly from his home and country to the most 
barren and rocky caverns in the mountains. The other doomed 
cacique, the unhappy Guarionex, warned of the intention of 
the desperate Ciguayans to murder him as the cause of their 
ruin, and hoping thereby to win mercy for themselves from the 
Spaniards, fled to the most distant and desolate retreat in that 
mountainous wilderness. Pursuing these two unfortunate 
caciques, the Adelantado and his men overcame by dint of cour- 
age, endurance, and strength the appalling difficulties of such a 
rocky, tangled, and precipitous pursuit, seeking in every rock, 
cavern, or thicket for their victims. Many of the Spanish soldiers 
sought pretexts for returning to their homes or gardens near 
Fort Conception, but the indomitable will of the Adelantado, 
with thirty remaining men and some Indian followers, kept up 
the hunt with unfaltering tenacity. Neither fatigue nor want of 
food dampened the ardor of the pursuers ; but the whole country 
was abandoned by its once happy inhabitants. There were yet 
some desperate and fugitive natives, but few and solitary ones, 
who were forced out of their hiding-places in the rocks, here 
and there, to seek for a root or some berries to save themselves 
from starvation. If the Spaniards saw one of these wretched 
natives, he knew nothing of the hiding-places of the caciques ; 
but two of the miserable subjects of Mayobanex were one day 
captured by the Spaniards while the former were looking for a 
little cassava bread for their chief and the latter were hunting 
utias. Carried before the Adelantado, these frightened and 
despairing children of nature were forced, as is supposed, in the 
absence of historic narrative, by untold cruelties, to disclose the 
1 hiding-place of their chief, and even to lead his pursuers to the 



ON COLUMBUS. 375 

spot. Twelve Spaniards disguised as Indians made their way 
to the hiding-place of the noble Indian chief, compelling and 
forcing the reluctant guides to lead the way. They found their 
victim in his secluded retreat, sitting on the ground, surrounded 
by his wife and children and a few noble and ever-faithful sub- 
jects, and playing with his little children, when suddenly rushing 
upon him, and drawing their swords from their palm-leaf dis- 
guises, they seized the chieftain, bound him and carried him off, 
together with his family and followers, before they could recover 
from their sudden surprise and stupor. Among the prisoners 
was a sister of Mayobanex, wife of a neighboring cacique, who, 
on learning of her brother's misfortunes, left her home and her 
realm, " which," as Tarducci says, " had not yet felt the weight 
of the white man's civilization," and spent several days with him 
to console her brother in his misfortunes, and to share his dan- 
gers, his poverty, his hunger, and his downfall. When her dis- 
consolate husband heard of her capture and imprisonment, he 
went as a suppliant to Fort Conception and sued for the liberty 
of his wife, with tears and on his knees, offering in return for 
this mercy to subject himself, his dominions, and his people to 
the Spanish authority. In all the history of our race no more 
heroic, no gentler or more beautiful example of pure and de- 
voted love than his can be found. Don Bartholomew, who knew 
well how to be merciful and politic as well as stern and severe, 
and esteeming the possession of the cacique's wife as of little 
value compared to the peaceful subjugation of an entire district, 
released the captured queen and a number of Indians to the 
unfortunate and tender-hearted cacique. This act of generosity 
gained the gratitude and willing service of the now happy chief 
and his people, who became the allies of the Spaniards, and their 
very slaves in cultivating fields for them, and supplying them with 
food from the fruits of their hard and unaccustomed labor. The 
subjects of the captive chief, Mayobanex, made hopeful by this 
clemency of the Adelantado, ventured down from their mountain 
recesses, bringing presents to the Spaniards, and with loyalty 
and affection worthy of the imitation of the conquerors, sued for 
the release of their beloved and brave chief and his family. Don 
Bartholomew, with his accustomed judgment and discernment, 
gave their liberty to all but the unhappy chief, whom he retained 
as a hostage. 



376 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

The miserable Guarionex continued to be hunted until he was 
caught. The Ciguayans, the disconsolate subjects of the im- 
prisoned Mayobanex, not able in their misfortunes to sustain the 
princely and exalted sentiments and conduct of their chief, and 
accusing Guarionex of being the proximate cause of their mis- 
fortunes, resolved to watch for him and betray him on the oppor- 
tunity to the Spaniards. He wandered from one rock-bound 
cavern to another, attempting but once in several days to ven- 
ture forth in quest of food. He was finally seen by some vigilant 
Ciguayans, his hiding-place communicated at Fort Conception, 
and a few days afterward, as he was timidly and cautiously going 
out for something to eat, he was captured by Spaniards con- 
cealed in rocks or brush, who suddenly sprang from their lair ; 
and though almost exhausted unto death, he was hurried in 
chains before the Adelantado. This robust ruler spared a life 
now almost wasted, and retained him and his friend, Mayobanex, 
as prisoners or hostages for the good conduct of their people. 
By his vigorous action and unsparing energy, by a policy 
of mingled cruelty to his foes and of mercy to his victims, 
he had won complete dominion over the Royal Vega and the 
mountainous district of Ciguay, in which districts now reigned 
by his address the peace and quiet of a ruthless conquest. While 
the Count de Lorgues, the enthusiastic admirer of Columbus, 
passes over these lamentable details without even mentioning 
them, Mr. Irving remarks, in admiration for a character in 
which the nobler qualities predominated over the faults gener- 
ated by his trying position, " Don Bartholomew, however, 
though stern in his policy, was neither vindictive nor cruel in 
his nature. . . . He has been accused of severity in his gov- 
ernment, but no instance appears of a cruel or wanton abuse of 
authority." The learned and judicious Tarducci says, " With 
the opinion then universally held, that white men and Christians 
had full right to dispose at will of men of another color or re- 
ligion, it is easy to imagine the effect produced on the haughty 
character of the Spaniard by the haughty answer of Mayobanex, 
. in which Don Bartholomew, with his mind hlled with 
his right and duty to re-establish order in the colon}' and settle 
the authority of Spain over the savages, saw only an atrocious 
insult. Horrid times, when, in the name of religion and of civnli- 
zation, a portion of the human race believed itself right in regar 



ON COLUMBUS. 377 

ing and treating the rest as worse than beasts." And again the 
same author, " So ended the magnanimous struggle of those 
mountaineers, which, if related by some Indian Plutarch, would 
claim from posterity as great admiration and glory as the most 
famous war ever carried on by any people." * It might be 
added that the administration of Don Bartholomew Columbus 
was a model of mildness compared with the subsequent ones of 
Bobadilla and Ovando, which, with sorrow, we will have to 
relate hereafter. 

It was not long after these stirring and triumphant events in 
the administration of Don Bartholomew Columbus that his 
brother, the admiral, returned to Hispaniola. With shattered 
health, the admiral, so far from securing rest and peace on his 
return to the colony he had planted with so much generous 
hope, and sustained with such paternal solicitude and sacrifice, 
found the most disastrous and distressing period of his eventful 
and checkered life now before him. Between the wars and 
rebellions of the natives and the outbreak of his own followers, 
under Roldan, Columbus saw a scene of desolation and turbu- 
lence, of misery and anguish, where only four years ago he had 
beheld an earthly paradise, a field for civilization, a vineyard for 
the gospel of the Lord. Now all was changed. The poor 
natives were destroyed by war as by an unsparing pest, their 
chiefs were either slaughtered or imprisoned ; the few that sur- 
vived of a lately happy, contented, and hospitable race were 
timid stragglers and broken-hearted slaves in a land desolated, 
impoverished, ruined, and conquered ; frowning fortresses lorded 
the once beautiful landscape ; the mountains only seemed inhab- 
ited, and these by a skulking and despairing race ; silence and 
desolation ruled in once happy and peaceful Indian villages ; the 
unstinted hospitality of an innocent and generous people had 
become displaced by cruel oppression followed by hatred and 
the refusal to feed their conquerors ; scarcely a cacique, scarcely 
a man of family, had escaped the most heinous outrages on 
man's dearest rights and tenderest sensibilities ; once culti- 
vated fields and orchards were now overgrown with a rank and 



* Peter Martyr, decad. i., lib. v., vi. ; Fernando Colombo, cap. Ixxv. ; Las Casas, 
"Hist. Ind.," lib. i., cap. 121 ; Herrera, " Hist. Ind.," decad. i., lib. iii., cap. 8, 9; 
Irving's " Columbus," vol. ii., pp. 178-85 ; Tarducci's " Life of Columbus," Brown- 
son's translation, pp. 1 14-21. 



3/8 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

poisonous growth, and where nature gave spontaneous crops, 
food was insufficient for the cravings of hunger ; the songs of a 
people's joys and traditions were now the wails of misery and 
death ; crime had stalked with barefaced effrontery through a 
land and a people once innocent and childlike ; civilization had 
brought ruin, and Christianity, contrary to its precepts, had 
been heralded by vice, oppression, plunder, and lust. Unworthy 
heralds of the Cross had repelled a gentle race from its all- 
redeeming embraces. Even among the heralds of civilization, 
revolt, disloyalty, and violence had prevailed, and but for the 
stern and true loyalty and undaunted courage and sagacious 
administration of one man, a new world given by Columbus to 
mankind would have been lost to civilization, to science, to com- 
merce, and to religion. Had Columbus been supported by men 
such as he would have selected, men of order and of conscience, 
his administration and that of his brother under him would have 
proved a redeeming blessing to the natives, instead of their 
destruction. 

One of the first acts of Columbus on arriving at Hispaniola 
was to issue a proclamation approving the administration of the 
Adelantado and his acts, and proclaiming unqualified condemna- 
tion of Roldan and his followers. That reckless and unprincipled 
rebel had led his band of outlaws to the beautiful country of 
Xaragua, where they were received with unmerited and unre- 
quited kindness by the natives. Yielding to every vice and pas- 
sion of bad and desperate men, they exacted from the generous 
natives the gratification of every want, of every passion, and of 
their unbridled lusts ; their avarice and their caprices were 
equally exacting ; no discipline was imposed or observed, and 
that expansive and beautiful region imposed no bounds to their 
reckless and disorderly rovings. 

But suddenly one day an event occurred, at first alarming, but 
which at length, owing to their falsehoods and seductions, re- 
plenished their squandered stores and increased their numbers. 
Three ships were sighted making for the island, and soon they 
approached and anchored near the land, striking the rebels with 
consternation. The bold and sagacious Roldan from the first 
saw in them Spanish vessels, no doubt sent out with supplies for 
the colony, and saw in them his opportunity. He and his men 
preserved profound secrecy as to their real character, and they 



ON COLUMBUS. 379 

succeeded in making the three captains recognize him as a part 
of the Spanish colony and of the administrative machinery of 
Hispaniola. These were the vessels which the admiral had sent 
out from the Canaries for the relief of his colony, and which had 
been carried out of their reckonings by the winds and currents. 
Believing Roldan's representations that he was stationed there 
by the Adelantado to maintain the province in peace and subjec- 
tion to the Spanish authority, the three captains supplied him 
and his followers with provisions, arms, and ammunition. Some 
of the most capable of these rebels visited the ships without sus- 
picion and poisoned the minds of many of the men on board, 
who, as already related, had been received from the worst popu- 
lations of Spain for the third voyage. It was only after three 
days of such insidious intercourse that the most sagacious of the 
•captains, Alonzo Sanchez de Carvajal, discovered the true char- 
acter of this lawless band, but it was too late to correct the bad 
effects of their misleading visits ; so that when Juan Antonio 
Colombo landed at the head of forty well-armed men to make 
the march across the country to the settlement, he found himself 
suddenly deserted by all his men except eight ; the thirty-two 
joined the rebels to their great exultation, and no appeals of the 
captain could draw them away. The three captains made re- 
peated efforts to induce Roldan to desist from his lawless career 
and return to his duty and his obedience to his superiors, but all 
in vain ; the most they could accomplish was the promise of 
Roldan to submit as soon as he should hear of the arrival of the 
admiral, his resistance, as he asserted, being only to the unlaw- 
ful usurpations of the Adelantado. The plans of the captains 
were now changed. The ships sailed for San Domingo, but 
Carvajal remained on shore with the intention of making further 
•efforts to secure the return of Roldan and his men to their duty 
and allegiance. Failing in this, he returned to San Domingo 
under an escort of the rebels to protect him from the Indians, 
and bearing a letter from Roldan to Columbus, offering to recog- 
nize his authority and to negotiate for the settlement of all diffi- 
•culties. The ships, after maay disasters, arrived at San Domingo, 
but their provisions for the colony were either exhausted or 
mostly damaged. 

In the mean time Columbus had arrived at San Domingo and 
learned all the distressing details of the past from his ever-faithful 



380 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

brother, the able and undaunted Adelantado. Carvajal's ac- 
counts did not quite remove his fear and distrust of the rebels, 
for so flagrant and treacherous had been the conduct and the 
falsehood of Roldan, that no confidence could be placed upon 
any promises or professions he might make, though accompanied 
by the most solemn vows and oaths. He did not see how his 
government as Viceroy of Hispaniola could be maintained while 
an organized band of armed and equipped rebels were in posses- 
sion of an important section of the island, which they had seized, 
and where they were living riotously and defying his authority, 
or while the island was infested in every part with disaffected 
and disloyal Spaniards boasting their enmity to him and de- 
nouncing his conduct of affairs, and especially the administration 
of his brothers ; while the Indians were in a state of sullen 
silence, gloomy and resentful submission, and ready at the insti- 
gation of the rebels to join them in a common movement against 
him, his brothers, and his loyal followers, representatives of the 
Spanish sovereigns. In order to rid the island of as many of the 
disaffected as possible, he proclaimed, on September 12th, his 
consent that all who wished might return to Spain in the five 
vessels preparing for sea, giving them a free passage and pro- 
visions for the voyage. So loud had been the clamor against the 
Adelantado, and so persistent the charges of cruelty and oppres- 
sion, which had rung from one end of the island to the other, 
that the admiral found a deep impression had been made by 
them, even upon the minds and judgments of the loyal. These 
charges were never sustained, and historians have acquitted the 
Adelantado of them all. If his course toward the natives is re- 
garded as inexorable and cruel, against natural right and human 
justice, as certainly it was, these elements in his administra- 
tion are attributable rather to the ruthless system of European 
advancement and conquest, which he had represented in the 
absence of his brother, and which, while they overwhelm 
humanity with shame, are but the execution of the sentence 
which in past ages, and in that age particularly, civilization had 
pronounced against barbarism. The pretext that the discontent 
prevailing so generally was only aimed against his brother was an 
empty assertion, since it was manifest that the admiral then and 
thereafter fared no better at their hands. 

As soon as Columbus heard of Roldan's purpose of advancing 



ON COLUMBUS. 381 

toward San Domingo to treat with him on the discontents of the 
rebels, the former immediately sent word to Miguel Ballester, 
the veteran and undaunted commander of Fort Conception, to 
await the approach of the rebels with every preparation of vigi- 
lance and defence, and to trust him not in any professions of 
loyalty, but to entertain a parley with him and to offer him, in 
the admiral's name, pardon for the past if he would return to his 
duty and allegiance, and to suggest or invite his repairing to 
San Domingo to confer with the admiral, to the end of a per- 
manent settlement of all difficulties, under the most solemn assur- 
ances of personal safety — a guarantee which would be put in 
writing if desired. Scarcely had the commander of Fort Con- 
ception received the admiral's letter, when the rebels began to 
make their appearance in the Vega, where the village of Bonao 
became their rendezvous, and where the residence of Pedro 
Requelme, one of their ringleaders, became their headquarters. 
This village was about ten leagues from Fort Conception and 
twenty from San Domingo. Miguel Ballester advanced to meet 
Roldan as a messenger of peace, and he had been well selected 
for the purpose, on account of his age and dignified appearance 
and demeanor, his mildness of character, unblemished record, 
and indomitable courage — qualities which the rebels themselves 
should have respected. The parley took place between this 
noble soldier and the rebel Roldan, with three of his chief co-con- 
,spirators, Pedro Requelme, Pedro de Gamez, and Adrian de 
Moxico. Roldan's forces from every quarter rallied at Bonao, 
and, feeling emboldened by his strength, he haughtily refused 
the proffered pardon, and declined an interview with Columbus. 
Assuming the air and tone of power and authority, he began to 
make new demands, and insisted on the release of some Indians, 
subjects of Guarionex, who were about to be sent to Spain as 
slaves, as a punishment for refusing to pay the tribute — a refusal 
which Roldan himself had instigated. He knew that in thus 
pretending to be a protector of the Indians, and by giving to his 
demand a pretended official character by virtue of his office of 
Alcalde Mayor, he wounded the administration of the admiral in 
one of its most unpopular methods ; he even threw out hints 
that he held the balance of power in his hands, and that the 
admiral himself might be brought under his control for weal or 
woe ; that he desired no terms of peace ; that Carvajal was the 



38i2 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

only one he would treat with, as he was the only fair man ; and 
any terms he would accept must be most favorable to himself 
and his men. 

The admiral knew well how to estimate his own and his 
enem3^'s strength, and he felt appalled at the general disaffection 
prevailing around him. A call on the inhabitants of San Do- 
mingo brought to his aid only seventy men, and of these scarcely 
forty could be accepted for military service, such was the pre- 
dominant disloyalty poisoning the hearts of the community. So 
flimsy were the excuses given by the citizens for escaping mili- 
tary service against the rebels, that disloyalty was apparent 
through them all. Uniting great prudence of action with an 
exuberant enthusiasm, great courage guided by caution, the 
admiral hesitated to risk his authority, his person, his colonj^ 
his prestige of success, his reputation at home, his very enter- 
prise itself, upon the uncertain result of an open battle with such 
numerous and unprincipled enemies. The ships already pre- 
pared for sailing to Spain had been delayed for eighteen days, 
in the hope of sending more favorable accounts to Spain as to 
the condition of affairs, but now the poor and miserable prisoners 
on board the ships, especially the Indians, had become desperate 
even to sickness, death, and suicide from their long confinement ; 
and the Spanish malcontents, whom his proclamation had induced 
to embark for Spain, were becoming more than ever restless. 
Delay now was worse than disaster, so that he sent the ships to 
sea on October i8th. He wrote by this opportunity a detailed 
account to the sovereigns of the rebellion of Roldan, the con- 
dition of the colony, and the administration of Hispaniola. In 
this important letter Columbus clearly traced the discontents and 
present misfortunes of the colony to the delays and machinations 
of Fonseca and his abettors in the Indian Bureau at Seville, in 
sending out provisions and in causing his own long delays in. 
Spain. He urged the regular and speedy transmission of sup- 
plies from Spain, and asked that good and zealous missionaries 
be sent to evangelize the natives and check the unbridled pas- 
sions of the Spaniards ; and that royal administrative and judicial 
officers be also sent to assist him in the government and regula- 
tion of the island and in administering justice, and recommended 
that they should be Spaniards, as the malcontents assailed him 
as a foreigner. Apprehending that his enemies in Spain had 



ON COLUMBUS. ^ 385 

availed themselves of the chastisement he gave to the miserable 
Ximeno Breviesca, " Fonseca's impudent favorite," he appealed 
to the justice of the sovereigns against the slanders of his ene- 
mies, reminding them that he was " absent, envied, and a 
stranger." He also dwelt fully on the resources of Hispaniola, 
and reaffirmed and demonstrated the truth of his former accounts. 
Another letter of the admiral gave an account of his voyage 
through the Gulf of Paria, of the continent he saw, which he 
regarded as the finest portion of Asia and the seat of the terres- 
trial Paradise, and he sent the first pearls ever received in Spain 
from the new world, promising to renew the exploration and dis- 
covery of this vast and fertile country as soon as the tranquillity 
of the island would give him an opportunity. The following 
passage from the Count de Lorgues shows how eminently capa- 
ble the admiral was to govern a colony by wise and practical 
measures, and how the wisest administration would be defeated 
by the rebels and criminals infesting the island ; for having 
pointed out to the sovereigns the existing evils, and traced many 
of them to the Bureau of the Indies at Seville, he goes on in his 
letter to outline the policy to be followed in Hispaniola : " It 
would be necessary to prolong a year or two longer the power 
given the colonists to employ in their service the natives who 
had been made prisoners of war. With the exception of clothing, 
equipments, and wine, which it would be necessary to import 
from Spain, everything else necessary for life could be procured 
from the soil. He was preparing to raise large crops of cassava, 
a kind of food to which the Castilians had already become accus- 
tomed ; sweet potatoes and ajis were abundant in every locality. 
The rivers were numerous, and abounded with fish ; poultry and 
hogs multiplied soon and abundantly. Utias were so numerous 
there that a dog, led by a domestic, could catch from fifteen to 
twenty of them in a day. The means of subsistence were abun- 
dant, and there was nothing wanting but Christians who would 
be such in practice as well as in name." * In this letter he sent 
out a map and chart of the Gulf of Paria and the adjacent Terra 



* Barry's translation of De Lorgues* " Life of Columbus," p. 392 ; Las Casas, 
"Hist. Ind.," lib. i., cap. 153, 157; Oviedo, " Hist. Ind.,"lib. iii., cap. vi. ; Herrera, 
"Hist. Ind.," dec. i., lib. iii.; Irving's "Life of Columbus," vol. ii.. p. 194-99; 
Tarducci's " Life of Columbus," vol. ii., p. 130. 



384 t)LD AND NEW LIGHTS 

Firma, with directions how to reach it, and specimens of the 
pearls and gold of the new world. 

The vessels carried out also letters from Roldan and other 
rebels, in which the reverse side of the picture was given, and 
every means were taken to represent the rebellion as caused by 
the misconduct, injustice, extortion, and tyranny of Columbus 
and his brothers. But these enemies of the admiral relied more 
on the hostility of Fonseca to Columbus, on his numerous other 
enemies in Spain, on their own friends and relatives, and on the 
growing unpopularity of the Genoese foreigner. The glory he 
had conferred upon Spain was not sufficient to naturalize him as 
a Spaniard ! 

Moderate and conciliatory in his character and measures, 
Columbus now made another and a most earnest effort to termi- 
nate the rebellion of Roldan and his confederates. The impor- 
tance of resuming his discoveries and explorations of the main- 
land extending westward from the Gulf of Paria, and the indis- 
pensable necessity of quieting Hispaniola, now pressed with 
almost equal urgency upon his mind. He had to forego his 
intention of sending his brother, Don Bartholomew, to continue 
the former, because his military services were now so neces- 
sary for the accomplishment of the latter. Deeming it impru- 
dent and unsafe to risk all by an open battle with the aug- 
mented forces of the rebels, he was compelled to resort to the 
humiliating expedient of renewing negotiations. Hoping that 
Roldan might yet preserve some remnant of his former grati- 
tude, or might be moved even by the remembrance of his old 
friendship, he addressed to him a friendly letter, dated October 
20th, 1498, and so characteristic of the admiral's sentiments, and 
written in as clear and simple a style as his heart was honest, 
that I will here introduce it at length : 

" Dear Friend : My first care on arriving in this capital, after 
having embraced my brother, was to inquire about you. You 
cannot doubt that, next to my family, you have for a long time 
occupied the first place in my affections ; and I have always 
counted so much on yours, that there is nothing in which I 
would not have entirely depended on you. Judge, therefore, of 
my grief, when I learned that you were embroiled in a feud with 
persons who are the nearest to me in the world, and who ought 
to be the dearest. Still, I have been consoled by being informed 



ON COLUMBUS. 385 

that you ardently desired my return. I flattered myself then 
that your first sentiments in regard to me were not changed, and 
I expected that, as soon as you would hear of my arrival, you 
would not delay coming to see me. Not seeing you appear, and 
thinking that you apprehended some resentment on my part, 
I sent Ballester to you, to give you all the assurances that you 
could desire. The little success that attended that step has filled 
me with regret ; and whence could that distrust come which you 
seem to have in me ? At last you demanded to have Carvajal 
sent to you. I send him. Open your heart to him, and tell him 
what I can do for you to regain your confidence ; but, in the 
name of God, remember what you owe to your country, to the 
kings (our sovereign lords), to God, and to yourself ; take care 
of your reputation, and judge of things more soundly than you 
have done in the past. Consider with attention the abyss you 
are digging under your feet, and no longer persist in a desperate 
resolution. I have represented you to their Highnesses as a 
man of the colon}' whom they may most rely upon ; it concerns 
my honor and yours that a testimony so advantageous should 
not be belied by your conduct. Hasten then to show yourself 
again the man I formerly knew you to be. I have detained the 
ships that were all ready to sail, with the hope that, by a prompt 
and perfect submission, you will place me at liberty to confirm 
all the good things I have said of you. I pray God to have you 
in His holy keeping." 

In the distrust created by the general prevalence of disloyalty, 
the selection of one to bear this letter to the rebels became a 
grave question ; for while Columbus would select Carvajal, and 
he was most acceptable to the rebels, strong objections were 
raised against him by many of the admiral's friends, for they 
remembered how he had received Roldan on his ship at Xaragua 
for two days ; had furnished them with arms, ammunition and 
stores ; neglected to arrest him on board his ship after discover- 
ing he was a rebel ; had been escorted by the rebels from Xaragua 
to San Domingo, and had sent them refreshments at Bonao ; had 
represented himself as a colleague of Columbus in the adminis- 
tration, and appointed to inspect his conduct ; that he had invited 
the rebels to San Domingo ; the very desire of the rebels to have 
him sent to treat with them, and other indications derived more 
from suspicion than facts. But Columbus remembered that his 



386 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

keen eye first discovered and exposed their true character at 
Xaragua, and that his subsequent consideration for them was 
based on his prudent regard for the weakness of the government 
and his desire to secure peace, and he showed his superior judg- 
ment in sending this faithful officer on the mission, Ballester 
accompanied him. 

Scarcely had the ambassadors departed for Bonao, when the 
admiral received a letter signed by Roldan and his co-conspirators, 
Adrian de Moxica, Pedro de Gamez, and Diego de Escobar, dated 
October 17th, in which they vindicated their conduct, asserted that 
they had resented only the despotism of the Adelantado, and had 
now for a month awaited in vain some sign of conciliation from him, 
whose arrival they awaited ; and they demanded now to be dis- 
charged from his service. The friendly letter of Columbus, sup- 
ported by the cogent reasonings of Carvajal and Ballester, had the 
effect of inducing Roldan, Gamez, Escobar, and others to mount 
their horses to ride at once to the presence of the admiral ; but the 
clamors of the insolent rabble at their backs compelled them to 
dismount. They demanded that written passports for the chief 
rebels should be sent and the terms of agreement should be re- 
duced to writing, made public and submitted to them. Under 
the advice of Carvajal and Ballester, given after the)' had • seen 
the strength of the rebels and its constant augmentation, the 
passport was sent, and Roldan now stood in the presence of his. 
superior. Several interviews and the exchange of several letters 
brought them no nearer to an agreement. Roldan actuall}^ 
availed himself of his presence at San Domingo to gain recruits 
for his service. He finally departed under pretext of co;jsulting 
his men, but, on the contrar)', he wrote an arrogant letter to the 
admiral on November 6th, dictating his own terms and demand- 
ing a reply by the nth at Conception, whither he was going on: 
account of the scarcity of provisions at Bonao. As it was im- 
possible for him to accede to Roldan's insolent demands, Colum- 
bus issued a proclamation of amnesty and pardon to all wha 
would come in within thirty days and return to their allegiance 
to the sovereigns, a free conveyance to Spain for all who wished 
to return, and denouncing severe punishment on all who refused 
to comply. When Carvajal arrived at Conception with a copy 
of the proclamation for Roldan, he found that rebel and his 
forces actually besieging Fortress Conception under pretext of 



ON COLUMBUS. 387 

seizing a culprit, whom he demanded in his capacity as Alcalde 
Mayor, and cutting off all supply of water from the fort. The 
proclamation posted at the gate of the fortress only elicited in- 
sults and jeers from the rebels and threats of retaliation. At 
length the persuasions of Carvajal brought the rebels to terms, 
which were signed by Roldan and his followers at Fort Concep- 
tion on November i6th, and by the admiral at San Domingo on 
the 2 1st, whereby it was agreed that the rebels would embark 
for Spain in two vessels to be provided and supplied by the 
admiral at the port of Xaragua within fifty days ; that they re- 
ceive certificates of good conduct and orders for the payment of 
their terms of service ; that they were to receive the same num- 
ber of slaves as others, with permission to carry them to Spain, 
though none of the slaves should be carried off forcibly, and if 
they wished, such as had native wives and children might carry 
them in place of the slaves ; that confiscated property should be 
released ; that the ships remaining in Hispaniola should not be 
used to molest the rebels on their return voyage ; that they 
might dispose of their property before leaving the island, and 
receive indemnity for such as they might leave behind ; and that 
they should have a safe conduct to Spain. The rebels were to 
account to the government for all slaves they took out, and lor 
all government property they might hold. The admiral of his ■ 
own generosity dispensed from penalties such of the rebels as 
wished to remain in the island in the king's service, or as culti- 
vators of the soil, promising them land and Indians to work the 
same ; but as they all preferred to return to Spain with Roldan, 
Miguel Ballester was sent with them to Xaragua to expedite their 
departure in the ships. 

The urgency of this measure to the admiral's deep regret pre- 
vented the prosecution of the exploration of Terra Firma either 
by himself or the Adelantado. The ships were sent to Xaragua 
in February, 1499, but in consequence of the scarcity of ship's 
provisions and the confused and impoverished condition caused 
by the misconduct of the rebels, it was after the stipulated time 
of fifty days before they sailed from San Domingo for Xaragua ; 
and even then one of the ships, which became disabled by a 
storm, had to be replaced by another. By the time both vessels 
met at Xaragua, probably in April, the rebels refused to embark, 
and they cast the blame upon the admiral, alleging that he had 



388 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

purposely delayed the ships, had finally sent unseaworthy ones, 
and that they were insufficiently victualled. Carvajal made a 
protest before a notary in his company, and as the ships began 
to suffer from the teredo, and the provisions were giving out, he 
sent them back to San Domingo, while he set out for the same 
place overland. Roldan accompanied him a short distance, and 
on the way manifested great distrust of his present situation, and 
expressed an anxious desire to treat again with the admiral, 
avowing his loyalty and asking safe conducts for himself and fol- 
lowers on their mission to the admiral ; but his followers, whom he 
seemed to distrust, were not to know of this proposal to treat with 
the admiral again. Columbus having returned to San Domingo 
from a tour of inspection through the island with the Adelantado, 
in which he had endeavored to restore peace to his distracted 
domain, he immediately forwarded the safe conducts to the 
rebels. But now, in the midst of his unceasing and herculean 
efforts to serve his sovereigns, he received from Spain an answer 
to his urgent representations of the preceding fall, in which he 
gave an account of the rebellion of Roldan, the confusion and 
disorder he had created throughout the island, and appealing 
to the crown for support in his efforts to bring order and pros- 
perity to the country. When it is related that his inveterate 
enemy, Fonseca, had written the letter, its character may be 
preconceived, for instead of royal sympath}^ and approval to his 
efforts for the service of the crown, he was coldly informed that 
the sovereigns reserved the matter in their hands for future con- 
sideration and remedy. Thus discouraged and disheartened at 
the very moment he needed the rebels to know that his adminis- 
tration was sustained in Spain, he yet, with admirable and heroic 
constancy, bent all his efforts to secure some settlement with the 
rebels, and for this purpose, accompanied by many of his prin- 
cipal counsellors, he moved nearer to Xaragua in his two cara- 
vels, and anchored in the port of Azua. Here he was met by 
Roldan, accompanied by Moxica and other principal insurgents, 
who even now again showed the utmost insolence and arrogance 
in their interviews with him. 

The terms now demanded by the rebels were that Roldan 
might send fifteen of his men to Spain by the vessels at San 
Domingo ; that those remaining behind should have separate 
tracts of land in lieu of pay ; that a proclamation should issue 



ON COLUMBUS. 389 

exculpating them from all blame and announcing that all the 
charges made against them were false and invented by the ene- 
mies of the crown, and that Roldan should be restored to his 
office of Alcalde Ma^^or. Humiliating as these insolent terms 
were, the admiral felt compelled to accept them as the lesser 
evil. Even now Roldan claimed the right to consult his fol- 
lowers, and after two days the}^ sent to the admiral their terms 
of capitulation in writing, which embraced not only the clauses 
above mentioned, but also the provisions of the arrangement pro- 
posed at Conception ; and while the demands made were arro- 
gant and insolent both in substance and in language, their final 
assumption exceeded all the others combined, that if the admiral 
should fail to fulfil any of these conditions, these rebels should 
have the right to assemble and compel their performance by 
force or otherwise, as they might think proper. Columbus, in 
the straitened and almost abandoned condition in which he 
was, anarch}' reigning in Hispaniola and distrusts and machina- 
tions at work against him in Spain, had no other choice than to 
submit to these humiliating terms. Had he made a bold and 
public exposition to the world of the condition of things — the 
crimes of his enemies in Hispaniola and the ingratitude and 
neglect of his king — he would have drawn to himself the sym- 
pathy of all, but Spanish dominion in the new world would have 
received a stunning blow. He sacrificed every personal feeling 
and interest for the good of his country. He hoped at a future 
day to report in person to the sovereigns the condition of things, 
and obtain even tardy justice from the court ; and as for pos- 
terity, he knew it would do full justice to his character, his 
services, and his achievements. Having now granted all to the 
rebels, at the last moment with innate dignity he inserted a 
clause that all should obey promptly the commands of the sover- 
eigns, of himself, and of the justices appointed by him. The 
straits to which the Viceroy of the Indies was reduced might be 
estimated from one among other facts : the very men around his 
person, those whom he esteemed the most loyal, seeing how 
powerless he was in the face of the rebels, and how they had 
dictated terms to him, openly talked of abandoning his cause, 
seizing the fine eastern province of Higuey and its gold mines, 
setting up a separate government, and enriching themselves in 
defiance of all honor and duty. It was the forbearance of Colum- 



390 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

bus that saved Hispaniola, the first Spanish dominion in America, 
from anarchy and self-destruction, and perhaps prevented the 
abandonment of the new world again to barbarism. 

What greater humiliation could have been reserved for him 
than to find himself compelled to sign a commission appointing 
Roldan, the chief rebel, a criminal outlaw, to the responsible 
office of Alcalde Mayor, or chief justice of the island ? It is re- 
lated by the Count de Lorgues, though not mentioned by Irving 
or Tarducci, that the clause reserving obedience to the com- 
mands of the crown, of the admiral, and of his justices, was in- 
serted in Roldan's commission, and that when that insolent 
usurper saw it, he violently ordered the words to be erased, and 
appealed to his lawless followers to sustain him, proclaiming his 
purpose of hanging anj^ one that dared to contradict him. " The 
admiral," sa3^s De Lorgues, " had still to submit to the will of 
his former ungrateful and rebellious servitor." And Tarducci, 
speaking of the patience and wise forbearance which he practised 
under such humiliations, says ' ' that the new continent his genius 
had foreseen , . . remained a glorious field for the labors 
and discoveries of those who came after him." And our own 
countryman, Mr. Irving, writes, " Thus critically situated, dis- 
regarding every consideration of personal pride and dignity, and 
determined, at any individual sacrifice, to secure the interests of 
an ungrateful sovereign, Columbus forced himself to sign this 
most humiliating capitulation." * 

Columbus was a man of too great a mind and soul to be appre- 
ciated by his contemporaries. The ordeal of successes the most 
briUiant and of reverses the most humiliating serves only to 
enhance his exalted character in the eyes of posterity. But the 
severe humiliations to which in life he was subjected seemed 
then, in the eyes of the world, to hide from view the grandeur 
of his conduct, the exalted purity of his motives, the ennobling 
virtues which he practised, the consummate wisdom of his policy, 
and the self-sacrifice he made for his country and for the world. 
In fact, it seems to have required the toning influences of four 
hundred years and the unparalleled development of the Ameri- 

* For the details of this narrative consult Herrera, " Hist. Ind.;" Fernando Columbus, 
" Hist, del Almirante ;" Munoz, " Hist. Nuevo Mundo ;" Barry's translation of De 
Lorgues' "Life of Columbus;" Irving's "Life of Columbus," and Mr. Brownson's 
translation of Tarducci's " Life of Columbus." 



ON COLUMBUS. 39I 

•can nations, enhanced by their present grandeur, to secure for 
Christopher Columbus the just admiration and the grateful appre- 
ciation of mankind. The recent work on Columbus from the 
pen of Justin VVinsor, the Librarian of Harvard College, is so 
great a departure from historical fairness and judicious investi- 
gation, even from an avowed enemy of Columbus, that it is uni- 
versally regarded as a mean attempt to deprive Columbus of the 
credit and glory of his discovery. Its violence will consign it to 
obscurity. It is a mere travesty of all dignified and impartial 
history. 

Nothing could be more unjust than the attempts of some mod- 
ern historians to hold Columbus responsible for the introduction 
of slavery into America, or for the cruel encomiendas which 
under Ovando, whom King Ferdinand appointed to supersede 
him, completed the enslavement of the natives to the Spaniards. 
I do not contend that Columbus made no mistakes or fell into no 
serious errors, but these were the mistakes and errors of judg- 
ment or of administration, which have also and equally checkered 
the careers of the best and greatest of men. Columbus was not 
the friend of human slavery, for one of the most prominent acts 
performed by him on his first voyage was the liberation of four 
natives captured and imprisoned b}' Pinzon on his ship with the 
intention of selling them in Spain as slaves — an act of justice 
which brought on him the undying hatred of that commander. 
No upright man in the nineteenth century can approve the deeds 
of any man in any age for the enslavement of mankind ; nor can 
a just man now fairly judge the actions of Columbus, inspired 
by the prevailing sentiments and practices of the fifteenth cen- 
tury, by the standards of the nineteenth. In making prisoners 
of war of the cannibal Caribs taken in arms and attacking his 
own peaceful Indians of Hispaniola, Columbus only acted in 
conformity to the customs of his own and more recent times. 
The laws of war then sanctioned this policy. Mr. Fiske writes 
of this part of the admiral's history : *' When Columbus came to 
Hispaniola on his second voyage, with seventeen ships and fifteen 
hundred followers, he found the relations between red men and 
white men already hostile ; and in order to get food for so many 
Spaniards foraging expeditions were undertaken, which made 
matters worse. This state of things led Columbus to devise a 
notable expedient. In some of the neighboring islands lived the 



392 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

voracious Caribs. In fleets of canoes they would swoop upon 
the coasts of Hispaniola, capture men and women by the score, 
and carry them off to be cooked and eaten. Now Columbus 
wished to win the friendship of the Indians about him by defend- 
ing them against these enemies, and so he made raids against 
these Caribs, took some of them captive and sent them as slaves 
to Spain, to be taught Spanish and converted to Christianity, so 
that they might come back to the islands as interpreters, and thus 
be useful aids in missionary work. ' It was really,' said Colum- 
bus, ' a kindness to these cannibals to enslave them and send 
them where they could be baptized and rescued from everlasting 
perdition ; and then again they could be received in payment for 
the cargoes of cattle, seeds, wine, and other provisions which 
must be sent from Spain for the support of the colony.' Thus 
quaintly did the great discoverer, like so many good men before 
and since, mingle considerations of religion with those of domestic 
economy." " Slavery, however, sprang up in Hispaniola before 
any one could have fully realized the meaning of what was going 
on. As the Indians were unfriendly and food must be had, 
while foraging expeditions were apt to end in plunder and blood- 
sheid, Columbus tried to regulate matters by prohibiting such 
expeditions, and in lieu thereof imposing a light tribute or tax 
upon the entire population of Hispaniola above fourteen years 
of age. As this population was dense, a little from' each person 
meant a good deal in the lump. The tribute might be a small 
piece of gold or of cotton, and was to be paid four times a year. 
Every time that an Indian paid this tax a small brass token duly 
stamped was to be given him to hang about his neck as a voucher. 
If there were Indians who felt unable to pay the tribute, they 
might as an alternative render a certain amount of personal ser- 
vice in helping to plant seed or tend cattle for the Spaniards." 
Again Mr. Fiske writes : " No doubt these regulations were 
well meant, and if the two races had been more evenly matched, 
perhaps they might not have so speedily developed into 
tyranny." * In another place the same author says this imposi- 
tion of tribute by Columbus " was part of a plan for checking 
depredations and regulating the relations between the Spaniards- 
and the Indians, "f A close examination of the progress of 



* "The Discovery of America," by John Fiske, vol. ii., pp. 432-34. 
f Id., vol. i., p. 481. 



ON COLUMBUS. 393 

events shows that Columbus was not responsible for the subse- 
quent introduction of the repartunientos, which may be styled a 
form of serfdom, and which was the act of the ruthless and rapa- 
cious gangs of lawless Spaniards who formed the colony of 
Columbus in the second expedition, against whom we have seen 
he was powerless, and was legalized and riveted upon the Indians 
under Aguado. It was the evident intention of Columbus to 
have limited his plan of regulating the relations of the two races 
to a moderate tribute, and this was intended as a check upon 
Spanish rapacity and tyrann}-. Under Ovando the rcpartimientos 
were deliberately developed into the more cruel encomiendas, the 
complete enslavement of the natives to their Spanish conquerors, 
and their final extermination by the most remorseless and hideous 
cruelties. 

Even Peschel, the eminent German geographer and anthro- 
pologist, whose judgment of Columbus is in general harsh, even 
unjust, said, in relation to his treatment of the Indians, what 
Washington Irving and so many others have said, " When we 
see, however, in our own day how the rights of the weaker races 
are shamefully violated, we may have some indulgence for this 
man of the fifteenth century." 

Even Winsor acknowledges the justice and the necessity of 
judging Columbus according to the prevailing sentiments of his 
own age, and not by those of our own, for he says, " No man 
craves more than Columbus to be judged with all the palliations 
demanded of a difference of his own age and ours." Yet 
throughout his book he signally violates the rule he recognizes. 

Among the contemporaries and companions of Columbus was 
the great and illustrious Las Casas, afterward Bishop of Chiapa, 
in Mexico, who was an eye-witness and a conscientious historian 
of the great events of the discoverer's life. His " History of the 
Indies" is the great basis of our modern histories in all subse- 
quent times, and as Mr. Fiske, quoting Washington Irving, justly 
says of it : " In a far truer sense than any other book it may be 
called the corner-stone of the history of the American Conti- 
nent." * Now, if there is any one feature more prominent than 
others in a life replete with pre-eminent acts and labors of humane 
and heroic goodness — a life which is justly regarded as exhibiting 



* John Fiske's "The Discovery of America," vol. ii., p. 481. 



394 <^^LD AND NEW LIGHTS 

a character which was " the highest type of manhood" — it was 
that Las Casas was the best and noblest friend of the Indians, 
and their most illustrious and consistent liberator, the champion 
of human liberty. It is difficult for us, in the nineteenth cen- 
tury, after four hundred years of calumny and detraction, to 
form a perfect conception of the life, character, and deeds of the 
great discoverer of 1492. But Las Casas, his companion, the 
witness of his career, the great historian of that age, was, with- 
out question, the most competent to judge and record his true 
and undisguised acts, which passed under his own eye. Had 
Columbus been an enslaver of the Indians, Las Casas would have 
known it, and he certainly would have been the first to denounce 
him, for he denounced his successors, his own countrymen and 
those in the highest places, for the subsequent enslavement of 
the redmen. He won to the cause of liberty and the liberation 
of the Indians the Emperor Charles V., Cardinal Ximenes, and 
the Pope ; and with these powerful allies he made the Indians of 
America free. That such a champion of freedom should have 
admired and praised Columbus for his administration in His- 
paniola, and in respect to the very events which Mr. Winsor 
and others have used for their accusation — that Columbus was 
the enslaver of the Indians — is sufficient to refute unanswerably 
so unjust and false a charge. Mr. Fiske, in his preface to " The 
Discovery of America," p. xi.. says : " The most conspicuous 
difference" (between himself and Justin Winsor in regard to 
Columbus) " is that which concerns the personal character of 
Columbus. Mr, Winsor writes in a spirit of energetic (not to 
say violent) reaction against the absurdities of Roselly de Lorgues 
and others who have tried to make a saint of Columbus ; and 
under the influence of this reaction he offers us a picture of the" 
great navigator that serves to raise a pertinent question. No 
man can deny that Las Casas was a keen judge of men, or that 
his standard of right and wrong was quite as lofty as any one 
has reached in our own time. He had a much more intimate 
knowledge of Columbus than any modern historian can ever 
hope to acquire, and he always speaks of him with warm admira- 
tion and respect ; but how could Las Casas ever have respected 
the feeble, mean-spirited driveller whose portrait Mr. Winsor 
asks us to accept as that of the discoverer of America ?" 

Reference has been made to the fact that though Columbus 



ON COLUMBUS. 395 

was the discoverer of the new world, the justice of naming it in 
honor of its discoverer was denied to him. It is curious to 
observe how universal was the belief that the newly discovered 
countries were a part of Asia, and how long it was before the 
world came to reahze that thej formed parts of a new world. 
It is true, Americus Vespucius was the first to use the expression 
Novus Mundus, but he had not the slightest idea that the lands 
which he had discovered at the south, and to which he applied 
that term, were parts of the same countries that Columbus had 
discovered as a part of Asia, The injustice of accusing Americus 
of contriving designedly and treacherously to have his own name 
conferred upon the new world is almost as great as that by 
which Columbus lost the honor of having it receive his name. 

Americus Vespucius was a native of Florence, where he was 
iDorn on March i8th, 1452. He was of a good family, possessed 
no mean attainments in Latin, astronomy, geography, and was 
an energetic collector of maps, charts, globes, and works on his 
favorite studies. He was a merchant by profession, and was 
taken mto the great commercial house of the Medici at Florence. 
He was subsequently and successively in the employment of the 
Spanish and Portuguese governments, and he took part in fitting 
out under contracts Columbus's second voyage. He made four 
voyages to the Western Hemisphere : the first voyage in 1497- 
98 ; the second was made in company with Alonzo de Ojeda and 
Juan de la Cosa in 1499-1500, in which they explored the north- 
ern coast of South America, including the north coast of Brazil ; 
his third voyage was made in the service of Portugal, occurred 
in 1 501-1502, and embraced the Brazilian coast as far as latitude 
34° S., and he thence ran as far as the island of South Georgia ; 
the fourth voyage was in 1 503-1 504, also in the Portuguese ser- 
vice, in which he and Gonzalo Coelho endeavored to follow the 
Brazilian coast to its end, or until the}' solved the problem of the 
passage to the Indian Ocean. 

It was his first voyage which gave rise to the accusation that 
Americus had claimed for himself the discovery of the continent 
before Columbus ; but this accusation is disposed of by the fact 
now established that it was a bungling translation of a single 
word or proper name in one of his famous letters to Lorenzo de 
Medici and Soderini,* In these letters Vespucius describes a 

* Mr. John Fiske's " Discovery of America," vol. ii., chap. 7. 



396 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

country visited by him which bore the Indian name of Lariab, 
and the careless translator in the published copy of the Quattra 
Giornate^ rendered the name Parias. This region of Paria was a 
part of the continent. Columbus had discovered it in the summer 
of 1498, and Vespucius did not come within sight of it until one 
year afterward, in the summer of 1499 ; but the mistranslation, 
giving Lariab for Parias, would make Americus claim, over his 
own signature, the honor of first discovering the American Con- 
tinent in 1497, just one year prior to its discovery by Columbus. 
While we recognize his character as incapable of such falsehood 
and meanness, it is satisfactory to be able to give the historical 
narrative of the truth, which gives an exact form and record ta 
his acquittal. 

This, too, seems to be an apprppriate place for mentioning and 
giving the true history of the bestowal of the name of America 
to the western world, in honor of Americus Vespucius, instead 
of Columbia, in honor of Christopher Columbus. So great was 
the wrong inflicted upon the memory of Columbus by this 
misnomer, that many just and able historians and publicists have 
shown a strong disposition to resent it ; and it was but natural to 
infer from the wrong itself that somebody with a motive must 
be guilty of basely bringing it about. It was the next natural 
step in the course of events to suspect Vespucius of the deed, or 
of procuring it to be done, and finally to accuse him of it. He 
was the man who had the motive for the act, and in the absence 
of historical data the supposed motive was sufficient to condemn 
him. Even the great and good Las Casas was among the first 
and most energetic in imputing this treason against truth and 
justice to Vespucius. Vexed at the circumstance. Las Casas 
reports that Americus " sinfully failed toward the admiral," and 
he said, " If Vespucius purposely gave currency to this belief" 
(of his first setting foot on the main), " it was a great wickedness ; 
and if it was not done intentionally, it looks like it." f Americus 
was always on terms of friendship and good offices with Colum- 
bus, and he was a man of too much elevation of character to do,, 
or to contribute toward doing, so base an action. He and 



* "The Four Voyages of Americus Vespucius." 

f Fiske's "Discovery of America," vol. ii., pp. 156-59; Winsor's "Columbus,". 
p. 553. 



ON COLUMBUS. 397 

Columbus were never rivals. They were friends. Fortunately 
for the truth of history and for the honor of our race, the means 
are now at hand to remove this stain from the memory of a great 
man and distinguished navigator. The perversion of names, for 
so it may be called, resulted almost from accident, certainly 
from the ignorance of the geography of the newly discovered 
countries which prevailed at the beginning of the sixteenth cen- 
tury and for a long time afterward. There was no treason or 
malice in the business. 

The discoveries of Americus Vespucius created a great sensa- 
tion in the world, and his graphic descriptions of them in his 
famous letters, which were afterward published, had the effect 
of placing him on a plane of honor second only to that of Columbus. 
Brazil was his great discovery. The line of demarcation as altered 
from that of Pope Alexander VI. gave this vast region to Portu- 
gal. It was west of that famous line drawn across the earth from 
pole to pole, as subsequently fixed by treaty between Spain and 
Portugal. Little did Americus or any one else imagine that this 
region was in the same part of the world with the countries dis- 
covered by Columbus. It was thought to be a part of another 
or fourth part of the earth, to distinguish it from the three parts 
knovv'^n to the ancients — Europe, Asia, and Africa. Hence it was 
that Americus applied to it honestly and naturally the title of 
Novus Mtmdus. The famous letter of Vespucius containing this 
phrase was published in Paris by Giovanni Giocondo, of Flor- 
ence, without the knowledge of the author, and while he was 
absent from Europe. This publication was the great cause of 
Vespucius's fame as the discoverer of a world wholly distinct 
from that new part of Asia which Columbus had discovered. 

But now a powerful yet not wicked, an almost unconscious 
help was given to the wrong done to Columbus from an unex- 
pected quarter and from an almost obscure personage. At a 
small town in the Vosges, in the realm of Rene II., Duke of 
Lorraine, named Saint Die, was a college enthusiastically patron- 
ized by this royal friend of letters. The town traced back its 
history to the seventh century, when it began to grow up as a 
hamlet around the Benedictine monastery founded by St. Deo- 
datus, Bishop of Nevers, and toward the end of the tenth cen- 
tury the monastery was transferred from the Benedictines to a 
secular chapter of canons, and was presided over by a bishop 



398 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

under the title of Grand Provost. Under the patronage of the 
college the town grew and prospered, possessed a population of 
eight thousand, was a manufacturing and agricultural centre, 
and with the changes of time St. Deodatus became more con- 
veniently contracted to Saint Die. Many eminent scholars had 
filled the chair of Grand Provost, and under the patronage of 
Walter Lud, the secretary of Duke Rene, a printing-press was 
established at the college about the year 1 500. To this remote 
and obscure town many men of learning congregated, and among- 
its professors were many men of note and erudition. Among 
the latter came the young professor of Latin, Ringmann, who 
journeyed from Paris to Saint Die in 1505, to adorn its councils 
with his wit and brilliancy. In that year, too, there came to the 
College of Saint Die a young and talented professor of geography, 
Martin Waldseemiiller, from Freiburg. The two young profes- 
sors were congenial spirits. It may well be imagined how the 
news of recent marvellous discoveries had electrified the faculty 
of this learned college. The discoveries of Columbus seemed 
almost eclipsed by those of Vespucius. But Waldseemiiller had 
formed the acquaintance of Giocondo at Paris, and had caught 
from him the greatest enthusiasm for Americus Vespucius, the 
discoverer of Novus Miindus, which, as we have seen, was thought 
to be the fourth quarter of the earth, and no doubt he had pored 
over the letter of Vespucius to Medici, which Giocondo had 
published with the title of " De Ora Antarctica." It was during 
the height of this enthusiastic admiration for Americus that his 
second letter, addressed to Soderini, which gave a brief account 
of his four voyages, at Lisbon, September 4th, 1504, began to 
become known through manuscript copies, became printed at 
Florence in the first half of 1506 by Pacini, in Italian, and finally 
a French copy was made by an unknown hand, and of this last 
version in French the learned faculty of Saint Die procured a 
copy from Portugal through their patron, the Duke of Lorraine. 
A rare and splendid edition of the great geographical work of 
Ptolemy, in the mean time, and for some time previously, had 
been in preparation by Walter Lud, Ringmann, and Waldsee- 
miiller, and was to be issued in Latin from the press of Saint Die^ 
with important additions of modern geographical learning, bring- 
ing all down to that date, 1507. While Lud defrayed the ex- 
pense of the publication, Waldseemiiller performed the scientific 



ON COLUMBUS. • 399 

and Ringmann the philological part of the enterprise. Waldsee- 
miiller's map. Tabula Terre Nove, and a treatise by him also as 
an introductory to the great publication, were to form a part of 
the 'whole; and now just before the work was issued Duke 
Rene, having presented the French copy of Vespucius's Soderini 
letter to the learned trio, that, too, was eagerly made to form a 
part of the work. This last addition was the most important of 
all ; but it was translated into Latin, and by a strange liberty 
Vespucius was made to address his letter to the Duke of Lor- 
raine, Rene, instead of Soderini. This version of the letter con- 
tains the mistake by which Parias, a country and part of the con- 
tinent discovered by Columbus, was substituted by Lariab, an 
Indian name by which Vespucius designated another and obscure 
country he had seen. This notable publication was issued from 
the press of Saint Die on April 25th, 1507, under the title of 
Cosmographias Introductio." It has become more famous 
since it was the first work published which contained the name 
America, and this was the name which Waldseemiiller, in his 
introduction, suggested should be bestowed upon that fourth 
part of the earth which Americus Vespucius had discovered and 
described, and which formed the complement of the other three 
parts of Ptolemy, making now Europe, Asia, Africa, and America. 
We must bear in mind that the country thus designated by 
Waldseemiiller as America was, in fact, the Novtcs Miindus of 
Vespucius, which was, in fact, none other than Brazil ; and 
Waldseemuller had no thought whatever of bestowing that name 
upon countries discovered by Columbus. Mr. Fiske has given 
us a translation of the Latin passage from the young Professor 
Waldseemiiller's introduction, which reads : " But now these 
parts have been more extensively explored, and the fourth part 
has been discovered by Americus Vespucius (as will appear in 
what follows), wherefore I do not see what is rightly to hinder 
us from calling it Amerige or America — i.e., the land of Ameri- 
cus — after its discoverer, Americus, a man of sagacious mind, 
since both Europe and Asia have got their names from women. 
Its situation and the manners and customs of its people will be 
clearly understood from the twice two voyages of Americus 
which follow." * 



Fiske's " Discovery of America," vol. ii., chap. "], passim. 



400 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

From the beginning and then the countries discovered by 
Columbus were known as Asia, or the Indies. A copy of the 
edition of the Saint Die work of 1509 was in the Hbrary of Fer- 
nando Columbus, the second son of the admiral, who was a 
scholar and the biographer of his illustrious father. His life of 
the admiral was written after this, and he took no exception to 
the suggestion of America by Waldseemiiller as the name to be 
given to the terra incognita of Vespucius. There was never any 
intercourse between Vespucius and the faculty of Saint Die, 
nor did he do anything himself toward the publications and trans- 
lations of his letters to Medici and Soderini ; nor was he even in 
Portugal when Soderini made the first copy of the letter, but 
was then actually in Spain. Then, too, in Spain he visited 
Columbus, with whom his relations were always most friendly. 
Nor is there anything to suggest that Waldseemiiller himself had 
any design to do Columbus an injustice, or to bestow the name 
of Americus upon the countries discovered by him. On the con- 
trary, there is every reason to believe that he supposed these 
two newl}' discovered regions were in different quarters of the 
earth ; but the first link in the chain of practical wrong had now 
been wrought. It was easy for others to follow. 

The first map which ever contained the name of America was 
that published in 15 14, and attributed to the famous painter, 
Leonardo da Vinci, and on this map the region designated as 
America was drawn as a great island or continent by itself, and 
mostly south of the equator. It was Brazil. So also Schoner's 
globe in 15 15 contained the same extensive region, which he calls 

America or Brasilia, or Land of Paroquets." The Noviis 
Mundiis was, in fact, the southern continent, and in the course 
of time America became the name of the southern continent, and 
Brazil the name of a part of it designated as America. In the 
course of years all South America was circumnavigated and 
found to be a continent, and by 1550 the more northern lands 
discovered by Columbus had gradually become known to be 
separated from Asia. But now, in 1541, Gerard Mercator boldl}^ 
forged the links that followed, for he then had applied the name 
of America to all the Western Hemisphere, and his map of that 
date gives a fair outline of both the northern and southern con- 
tinents, all bearing the name of the Florentine navigator. It 
was now, but too late, that it was discovered that Columbus had 



ON COLUMBUS. 4OI 

been deprived of the justly earned honor of bestowing his name 
upon the new world he had discovered. Americus Vespucius 
was naturally but erroneously suspected of having brought this 
about. Las Casas, the historian of the Indies, as we have seen, 
was among the first to record his protest against the wrong thus 
inflicted on his friend, the admiral. Herrera, in 1601, openly 
accused Americus of the wrong, which he attempted to show 
was accomplished by fraud and falsehood, and the belief became 
general that Vespucius had deliberately attempted to supplant 
Columbus. Humboldt commenced the vindication of Vespucius, 
and Varnhagen made the refutation of the charge complete. 
Mr. John Fiske, of Cambridge, has added greatly to the proofs 
of his innocence, and has made his acquittal triumphant. 

It would be a great oversight herein not to refer to an unjust 
charge that has been made against Las Casas, the illustrious 
Bishop of Chiapa, and still more illustrious as the friend of 
human liberty. It seems unaccountable how such a man should 
have been accused of enslaving the Africans in order to liberate 
the Indians. That he labored unceasingly for the amelioration 
of the hideous cruelties and wrongs which the Spaniards inflicted 
upon the Indians, and for their emancipation from the horrible 
condition of slavery, under the name of encoiniendas , to which 
Ovando had reduced them, are facts in his glorious life of which 
humanity may feel proud. It is sad that under the second 
admiral, Diego Columbus, the condition of the Indians was no 
better than under Ovando. Las Casas, who had found good 
reason for praising the father, did not shrink from denouncing 
the wrongs which took place under the son. He united with 
Antonio Montesino and the other brave and noble Dominicans 
in Hispaniola in denouncing from the pulpit the enslavement of 
the Indians by Spanish planters and miners. He went to Spain 
as a missionary of liberty, and he ceased not to agitate for a 
chansre in the direful treatment of the natives until he obtained 
from the emperor the decree of 1542, " We order and command 
that henceforward for no cause whatever, whether of war, rebel- 
lion, ransom, or in any other manner, can any Indian be made a 
slave." Las Casas was not a mere champion of liberty ; he set 
the example to the Spaniards by liberating first his own slaves. 
I have said that he also gained as allies in his angelic work not 
only the Grand Cardinal of Spain, Ximenes, and the Emperor 



402 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

Charles V., but also that illustrious Pope, Paul III. This great 
and good pontiff issued his brief, which bears date in 1537, five 
years before the imperial decree against Indian slavery, and thus 
the further enslavement of Indians was forbidden under penalty 
of excommunication ; and any governor who should give or 
any planter who should receive a new encomienda, which was an 
enslavement, or who should despoil the natives of their property, 
should be refused the sacraments of the Church. Las Casas 
translated the Latin brief into Spanish, and he sent it to every 
part of the Indies. Abuse from cruel and selfish planters and 
miners, rebuffs from hardened officials, even from Fonseca, all 
tended only to inspire the heart of Las Casas with a profounder 
sense of his exalted apostolate. It was due to the labors and sac- 
rifices of this true Christian bishop that the greater part of Span- 
ish America was saved from the horrible taint of human slavery. 

If Columbus suffered a grievous wrong in being deprived of 
the honor of bestowing his name upon the new world, which he 
had so bravely discovered, what shall we say of the cruel slander 
which was cast upon the name of Las Casas, the anti-slavery 
crusader of the sixteenth century, in the charge that he had been 
the means of introducing African slavery into America ! The 
aspiration of this book will be amply rewarded if it succeeds in 
aiding to refute this calumny, and in removing from our histories 
and from the very text-books used in some of our public schools so 
grave an injustice. To the accomplishment of this end, a simple 
and brief narrative of the facts ought to suffice, even though it is 
perversely true that with superficial and hasty thinkers and 
readers even to our da}', Las Casas is chiefly known as the man 
who introduced African slavery and the slave trade into America. 
Appearances, with a slight foundation of fact in some small and 
trifling particulars, have led to this gross historical blunder, 
whereas a comprehensive view of all the facts will easily set. 
forth the truth with unerring light. 

Now it is undoubtedly true that Indian slavery was already 
established in Hispaniola before even the most observant and 
most humane were aware of it. The rapacity of the early Span- 
ish colonists, planters, and miners was truly appalling. It was 
against such odds that Las Casas waged his crusade of liberty. 
This struggle led to an earnest and widespread consideration and 
discussion of the inevitable labor question. If the Indians were 



ON COLUMBUS. 403. 

set free, who would supply the labor necessar}?^ for the country 
and its enterprises ? It was the planters who suggested that the 
Africans were a much hardier race than the Indians, and they 
proposed to yield to the demands for liberty for the Indians, if 
they should be permitted to substitute for their labor the labor 
of the Africans as slaves. These discussions reached the Spanish 
Court, and there, too, the champion of liberty was confronted 
with the same argument he had met in Hispaniola, that labor 
must be provided for the working of the plantations and 
mines of New Spain. The whole force of the situation pre- 
sented itself to the mind of Las Casas as a choice between two 
evils. Neither the sentiments of his age or country nor the 
education of that century, both inherited from the past, had 
reached the point of opposition to slavery even in the concrete ; 
it would be scarcely just to expect the sixteenth century to have 
reached the stage of development which even we Americans 
have only now reached in the latter half of the nineteenth cen- 
tury. A man who in those times and circumstances was so far 
in advance of all around him as to oppose any form of slavery 
was a hero, a philanthropist, far in advance of the age. The 
thought that, upon universal principles applicable to all times 
and countries, human slavery was wrong absolutely in itself, 
had never become a part of the convictions or education of the 
best sovereigns and statesmen. Las Casas had himself been a 
slaveholder, just as thousands of American citizens now living 
have been ; but he, like them, had sacrificed his private interests 
on the altar of liberty. In such a crisis of Indian emancipation, 
the suggestion that it would be more humane to substitute the 
hardier race of Africa in place of the less robust Indian race for 
the working of the Spanish plantations and mines in the new 
world presented itself to the benevolent mind of Las Casas 
purely as a move in the direction of amelioration ; and in answer 
to the arguments used at court, in the heat of his advocacy of 
Indian liberty, recalling the suggestion of the Spanish planters, 
he suggested that it might solve the present difficulty by substi- 
tuting African slaves for Indian slaves as the lesser evil. 

But Las Casas was far advanced already on the road to univer- 
sal emancipation, and it was but a step further — a step which he 
soon promptly and heroically took — to reach the conviction then 
so far in advance of his own and of even subsequent ages, that 



404 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

the same principles of right and wrong, the same title to freedom, 
which applied to one race, were equally applicable to the other. 
He afterward announced his advocacy of the universal right to 
liberty for all men. He even reproved himself for the apparent 
concession he had made to the planters and miners of Hispaniola. 
His great work, the " History of the Indies," sets forth the true, 
final, and unalterable convictions of his great soul. He there 
wrote that " if he had sufficiently considered the matter," he 
would not for all the world have entertained such a suggestion 
for a moment ; for," said he, " the negroes had been made slaves 
unjustly and tyrannically, and the same reason holds good of 
them as of the Indians." * 

Fortunately this passing remark of Las Casas, on the choice 
of the lesser evil, had no effect whatever either in introducing 
or in increasing African slavery in America. On the contrary, 
the effect of his efforts was favorable to the restriction of African 
slavery and the slave trade. Long before the occurrence which 
I have related African slavery existed in Hispaniola, and African 
slaves were then working in its mines. A royal decree as early 
as 1 501, while forbidding the enslavement of Europeans and 
various other races "in Hispaniola, permitted the use there of 
negro slaves, and African slaves were imported there during the 
first ten years after the decree. It was many years afterward 
before African slavery, however, became greatly increased, and 
Las Casas was an irreconcilable opponent of it. He certainly 
saved the poor Indians from utter annihilation. But for his 
labors, services, and success in this great work of humanity also, 
the earlier or more complete extermination of the Indians would 
have inevitably led to an immense increase of the African slave 
trade. The facts on this interesting subject have been lately and 
greatly elucidated by Mr. John Fiske, of Cambridge, in his 
learned work, from which I have largely drawn in this connec- 
tion, and I know of no inore appropriate way of closing the sub- 
ject than by quoting his strong language in defence of Las Casas. 
" When the work of Las Casas is deeply considered, we cannot 
make him anything else but an antagonist of human slavery in 
all its forms, and the mightiest and most effective antagonist 
withal that has ever lived." + 



* Mr. John Fiske's "The Discovery of America," vol. ii., p. 456 ; Las Casas, " His- 
toria de las Indias," vol. ii., doc. 175. f Id., p. 458. 



ON COLUMBUS. 405 

By the following passage, in concluding his chapter on Las 
Casas, Mr. Fiske exhibits a striking instance in which the eulogist 
wins exalted fame in the noble praises and vindication he bestows 
upon another : "In contemplating such a life as that of Las 
Casas, all words of eulogy seem weak and frivolous. The his- 
torian can only bow in reverent awe before a figure which is in 
some respects the most beautiful and sublime in the annals of 
Christianity since the apostolic age. When now and then in the 
course of the centuries God's providence brings such a life into 
this world, the memory of it must be cherished by mankind as 
one of its most precious and sacred possessions. For the 
thoughts, the words, the deeds of such a man there is no death. 
The sphere of their influence goes on widening forever. They 
bud, they blossom, they bear fruit, from age to age." * 



* Fiske, " The Discovery of America," vol. ii., p. 482. 



CHAPTER XII. 

" Trust reposed in noble natures 
Obliges them the more." 

— Dryden. 

"The purpose of an injury is to vex 

And trouble me ; now nothing can do that 

To him that's truly valiant. He that is affected 

With the least injury is less than it." 

— Jonson's "New Inn." 

" Innocence shall make 

False accusations blush, and tyranny 
Tremble at patience." 

— Shakespeare's "Winter's Tale." 

The harsh strokes of fortune, the urgency and disaster of his 
position, the defeat of his best efforts by bad men, the coolness 
and ingratitude of his king, made Columbus exert himself the 
more for the restoration of order and good government in His- 
paniola, and for the promotion of the honor and profit of his 
country and his sovereigns. Galling and excruciating as was his 
task, he bore himself with equanimity, patience, and wisdom. 
But his career of loyalty was beset with appalling difificulties. 

Roldan was installed in his office of Alcalde Mayor on Novem- 
ber 5th, 1499. Instead of carrying his stipulations into effect by 
supporting the authority of the admiral, he did all in his power 
to weaken his authority and insult him. Stalking through the 
streets of San Domingo with arrogance, and surrounded by 
rebels and disloyal people, he endeavored to win the loyal to his 
cause. He dismissed Rodrigo Perez as lieutenant to the Alcalde 
Mayor, because the admiral had appointed him ; and he and his 
companions proudly asserted that they had crushed the tyranny 
of Columbus and his brothers, and they claimed and received 
from many the honors paid only to heroes. Roldan presented 
a petition of one hundred rebels asking for lands in their favorite 
province of Xaragua, and the admiral, in granting their request, 
had the address to persuade them to accept land in different 
parts of the country, thus wishing to scatter rather than concen- 



ON COLUMBUS. 407 

trate the disloyal. In order to promote habits and methods of 
industry among them, and assist them on their farms, he liber- 
ated the Indians in their vicinities from the payment of the 
tribute, and arranged with the caciques in lieu thereof to give 
these Spaniards a certain number of Indians to till their lands for 
them. To deal with such worthless and reckless men required 
the most mature and consummate management, and even then 
the wisest measures are liable to be turned into the most unsuc- 
cessful by the wilfulness and crimes of the objects of one's solici- 
tude and generosity. Such was the case in this important in- 
stance. 

In his desire to scatter the late rebels, so as to prevent their 
concentration in case of further outbreaks, he managed to place 
them on lands granted to them in different parts of the island : 
some at Bonao, some on the Rio Verde in the Royal Vega, and 
others at St. Jago. With the lands given he assigned to them 
a liberal number of Indian prisoners of war. The original design 
of the admiral was to introduce in Hispaniola a paternal govern- 
ment, in which the Indians would be received as docile subjects 
of the crown, and led by zealous missionaries and the good ex- 
amples of the Christians to embrace the faith ; but the crimes 
and vices of the white men, their lusts and covetousness, their 
cruelties to the natives, and their disloyalty to the government 
frustrated all his purposes. Insurrections among the oppressed 
natives and rebellions among the Spaniards changed the whole 
policy of his administration. Forced by such unwelcome but 
irresistible circumstances, he fell in with the notions of the age 
and of the continental nations ; reduced the natives to a form of 
subjection by force, and now regarded and handled them as a 
conquered race, and their country and its lands as spoils of the 
conquerors. Tribute had been exacted of the natives, their 
lands were given to the conquerors, and the prisoners of war 
were condemned to a service well calculated to lead to their 
enslavement. The enslavement of Indian prisoners of war 
seemed to lead to the servitude of free Indians to their Spanish 
conquerors. The placing of certain numbers of Indians in the 
service of the rebels and of other Spaniards for the purpose of 
tilling their lands was practically a reduction of the native race 
to the condition of servitude ; but it was not personal slavery. 
■Columbus was not the author of that system of slavery which 



408 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

was afterward introduced under Bobadilla and Ovando, under 
the name of repartimientos, and which became generally intro- 
duced throughout the Spanish colonies and conquered countries. 
By that system free Indians were made the slaves in fact though 
not in name of the Spanish colonists. In establishing his owa 
disastrous system, so foreign to his own wishes and so alien ta 
his own mild, just, and generous nature, Columbus endeavored 
to impress order and system upon it, and for this purpose he 
appointed an armed police force, each section being placed under 
a military captain, who patrolled the provinces, compelled the 
Indians to pay the tribute, checked the conduct of the colonists^ 
and suppressed the first germs of rebellion or uprising. 

While De Lorgues, the enthusiastic eulogist of Columbus, 
passes over or refers but slightly to such events in his adminis- 
tration, the voice of history, while condemning the S3^stem itself, 
has with just discrimination referred this measure rather to the 
necessities of his position and the prevailing methods of the age 
than to the voluntary action of the admiral. Mr. Irving says : 
" This was an arrangement widely different from his original 
intention of treating the natives with kindness, as peaceful sub- 
jects of the crown. But all his plans had been subverted, and 
his present measures forced upon him by the exigencies of the 
times and the violence of lawless men." And the learned and 
discreet Tarducci writes : " The first intention of Columbus in 
regard to the Indians was, as we saw, that of an affectionate 
father toward his children, and all his hopes and desires were 
directed to making of them good and peaceful subjects of the 
Catholic sovereigns, and fervent followers of the law of Christ. 
But the violent and licentious conduct of most of his companions, 
the revolts of the natives, the necessity of making up for the 
want of hands and of victuals, and other disasters which befell 
him, forced his hand, and dragged him into the ideas of his 
time, which looked on discoveries of infidel lands in the light of 
conquests, and gave the conqueror absolute dominion over per- 
son and property." 

Even then, as it originated from his hands, the measure was 
not necessarily cruel or oppressive, for he endeavored to temper 
it with mercy and regulate it with justice ; and had it been prac- 
tised by the colonists in this same spirit, it would have resulted, 
in the civilization of the Indians by accustoming them to lives of 



ON COLUMBUS, 409 

regular and systematic industry and husbandry ; whereas, in the 
hands of merciless and avaricious men, of inhuman and cruel 
masters, it became, under his successors, one of the worst forms 
of human slavery, and resulted in the disastrous extermination 
of the native race.* 

But the leading rebel, Roldan himself, made more ample and 
extraordinary demands on the liberality of the admiral. Among 
the princely concessions made to this bold and reckless adven- 
turer, the representative rather of the remorseless buccaneers of 
past ages than of the Christian colonist of the age of Columbus, 
may be mentioned valuable lands near the city of Isabella, which 
he pretended to claim by a title anterior to his rebellion ; also a 
royal holding or farm, in the Vega, called La Lesperanza, an 
estate devoted to the raising of all kinds of poultr}-, the right 
to use the cattle on the royal or crown lands for the cultivation 
of his own farms, and finally the grant of extensive lands in 
Xaragua. In making these concessions to this grasping outlaw, 
the admiral subjected them to the condition of the pleasure of 
the crown when heard from ; for he still hoped that the revela- 
tion to the crown of the circumstances under which he was 
forced to make such concessions to rebels would end in their 
punishment rather than in their reward for their misdeeds, and 
in the restitution of their ill-gotten wealth. Roldan, more intent 
on the care of his plunder than on the duties of his office as 
Alcalde Mayor, asked and obtained permission to visit his vast 
estates. His conduct on the way thither showed again the arro- 
gant and lawless character of the man ; for history furnishes 
man}" instances of ruffians who were remarkably tenacious of 
official forms and commissions while violating every principle of 
legitimate authority. On arriving at Bonao, the late rendezvous 
of the rebels, he appointed one of his late confederates, Pedro 
Requelme, local alcalde, or judge, conferring upon him full 
powers of arresting all offenders and sending them as prisoners 
to Conception, where Roldan, still exercising in mockery the 



* Munoz, " Hist. Nuevo Mundo," lib. vi., § 50; Fernando Columbus, " Hist, del 
Almirante," cap. 84; Herrera, decad. i., lib. iii., cap. xvi. ; Dr. Barry's translation of 
De Lorgues' " Columbus," pp. 39S, 399 ; Irving's " Life of Columbus," vol. ii., 
pp. 212-14 ; ^^- Brownson's translation of Tarducci's " Life of Columbus," vol. ii., 
pp. 143-45- 



4IO OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

office of vA-lcalde Major, reserved to himself the right of judg- 
ment and sentence over them. Scarcely had the admiral ex- 
pressed his indignation at this affront to his own authority, when 
he received from Pedro de Arana, a man of integrity and loy- 
alty, information that Requelme, with Roldan's connivance, was 
erecting on a prominent site a strong building, so constructed 
as to serve as a fortress in case of need in any future disorders 
of the rebels. Columbus, on hearing the case, promptly and 
peremptorily prohibited Requelme from proceeding with his 
rebellious and well-understood designs and plans. 

In the mean time, the two caravels intended for the passage to 
Spain were gotten ready, and all who desired to return to their 
country were permitted to do so by this opportunity. Many of 
Roldan's late confederates returned on the ships, carrying with 
them not only slaves, but also the unfortunate daughters of 
caciques, whom they had seduced to leave their homes and coun- 
try, or perhaps seized by force for the most degrading purposes. 
While his generous feelings were outraged by these and many 
other such proceedings, the admiral found it prudent if not 
necessary to take no notice of them, for fear of bringing on a 
renewal of greater crimes. As it was, he felt that he was send- 
ing- home recruits for the alreadv auofmented ranks of his own 
slanderers and revilers at court. It had been the intention of 
the admiral to embark for Spain in one of these vessels, together 
with his brother, Don Bartholomew ; for his presence there 
seemed most important in order to refute the calumnies of his 
enemies and sustain at court his own cause and that of the new 
world. But how could he leave Hispaniola in its present peril- 
ous condition, when the government was not yet secure from 
the machinations of rebels ; when rumors were reaching him of 
a threatened descent of the mountaineers of Ciguay upon the 
Vega to rescue the imprisoned Mayobanex, their chief, then in 
the fortress of Conception ; when news also had just been re- 
ceived by him of the arrival off the western coast of the island of 
four unknown and suspicious-looking ships ? His fate seemed 
to chain him to this, the first yet disastrous offspring of the 
colonial policy he was struggling to found for the glory and 
profit of his country and his sovereigns. In his place, and for 
the purpose of conveying to the court a true account of the past 
and present condition of Hispaniola, and of refuting the calum- 



ON COLUMBUS. 41 1 

nies of his enemies, he sent out on the ships his cver-faithfiil and 
loyal aids, Miguel Ballester and Garcia de Barrantes. 

The admiral also sent out by this opportunity important letters 
to the sovereigns, in which he gave for the second time a detailed 
account of the late rebellion, and contended, for his own honor 
and for the honor of the crown, that the late capitulations 
between him and the rebels were in fact and by right of no bind- 
ing force. He gave his reasons for this statement in the fact that 
he yielded to duress in accepting and signing them ; that it was 
done at sea, where he was admiral but not viceroy ; that the 
rebels having been twice on due trial condemned as traitors, his 
pardoning power did not extend to such cases ; that the terms of 
the capitulations embraced the disposal of matters of the royal 
revenue, reserved to the crown or its proper representatives, 
and because Roldan and his followers were outlawed by the 
violation of their oaths of obedience to the sovereigns and 
to himself. For these and many other reasons he requested 
the sovereigns to review the case and annul the iniquitous 
terms Avrested from him by force and against his will. In these 
important dispatches Columbus renewed his former recom- 
mendations for the dispatch of a judge learned in the law to 
administer and enforce the law in so turbulent a community ; 
also for the appointment of a council of discreet persons, and of 
officers of the revenues, cautioning the sovereigns most strenu- 
ously against any infringement of his own rights and dignities ; 
and he requested that his son, Don Diego Columbus, should be 
sent to him, to assist him in the administration in his declining 
years and impaired health. Looking to the maintenance of his 
heirs forever in the important duties and honorable preroga- 
tives of the high hereditary offices he held, this was a grave and 
prudent step toward the education of the first heir of his offices, 
titles, and estates, for the important career which he had marked 
out for himself and his family. 

Before the departure of the ships bearing the protest of Colum- 
bus against any infringements of his privileges, dignities, and 
jurisdiction by the Spanish sovereigns, four suspicious-looking 
vessels had been seen to enter the little harbor of Jacquemel, on 
the western coast of Hispaniola. It soon transpired that the 
commander of this fleet was no other than Alonzo de Ojeda, 
who, as we have seen, distinguished himself in the service of 



412 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

Columbus, and had received great favors and distinctions from 
him, now seduced from his loyalty by the patronage and tempta- 
tions of Fonseca, and actually bearing a commission in direct vio- 
lation of the rights and concessions made to Columbus by Ferdi- 
nand and Isabella in the most solemn manner. Ojeda had already 
visited the coast of Paria and the Gulf of Pearls ; he had sailed 
through the Gulf of Paria, the Dragon's Mouth, coasted along 
the Cape de la Vera, visited the island of Margarita, discovered the 
Gulf of Venezuela, and had landed on the Caribbean Island, carry- 
ing off pearls and gold from Paria and Indians captured in battle 
from the Caribs, whom he intended to sell as slaves in the 
Spanish markets. Being in want of provisions, the fleet sailed 
for Hispaniola, after having made the most extensive vo3'age of 
discovery at that time accomplished in the Western Hemisphere. 

There was another distinguishing feature in this expedition, 
for besides many prominent and skilled pilots, navigators, and 
adventurers on board the ships of Ojeda, there was among them 
the man who afterward gave his name to the American Conti- 
nent, a merchant of Florence, skilled in geography and naviga- 
tion, Americus Vespucius. Although Ojeda had received from 
the lifelong enemy of Columbus and of all great American dis- 
coverers and explorers. Bishop Fonseca, a commission granting 
him the privilege of making such a voyage to the new world, he 
was in fact nothing more than a freebooter and a pirate. Fonseca 
had treacherously furnished him with copies of the admiral's 
charts and papers, a license signed by himself alone, and so 
craftily worded as to allow his visiting any of the lands discov- 
ered by Columbus subsequent to 1495, thus including in his 
license the newly discovered regions of Paria. Ojeda was also 
bolstered up with information imparted to him by Fonseca as to 
the admiral's present embarrassments, the jealousy of the king, 
and the confidentlv expected downfall of the admiral. 

Unfortunately for the latter, his stout and vigorous brother, 
Don Bartholomew, had departed from San Domingo with all 
the forces available for the distant regions of Ciguay, for the 
purpose of quelling a threatened revolt of the natives, for the 
Adelantado would have been the most trusty and the ablest 
leader to send to meet Ojeda. Though it was a risky measure, 
he now selected Roldan himself for this delicate and important 
task, trusting to his interests and his ambition, as well as to his 



ON COLUMBUS. 413 

love of renown, as incentives to his fidelity. His boldness, 
ability, and experience were well known. By reason of his large 
estates on the island he had become interested in the maintenance 
of peace and the security of property. 

Roldan readily undertook the work so generously assigned to 
him by the admiral. The encounter between two such reckless 
men as Roldan and Ojeda was characteristic and interesting. 
Embarking in two caravels with the forces placed at his disposal 
by Columbus, and arriving on September 29th within two leagues 
of the harbor of Jacquemel, he landed at the head of twenty-five 
picked, experienced, and well-armed soldiers, and after a recon- 
noissance, and ascertaining that Ojeda with only fifteen men was 
on the land several leagues distant from his ship in an Indian 
village, making cassava bread, he threw himself between Ojeda 
and his ships, expecting to surprise him. But Ojeda had word 
of the approach from Indians, with whom the name of Roldan 
was opprobrious, and with his characteristic boldness and 
strateg}^ seeing his retreat to the ships intercepted, he suddenly 
presented himself face to face to Roldan, attended by onl}^ half 
a dozen of his men. Roldan adroitly opened the conversation 
by alluding to general subjects, and gradually brought the inter- 
view to an inquiry as to Ojeda's motives in landing thus on a 
remote part of the island and without giving notice to the ad- 
miral of his arrival. Ojeda, with equal coolness, replied that he 
had been on a voyage of discovery, and had been forced to put 
in at Jacquemel for want of provisions and for ship repairs. 
Roldan then demanded to see the commission under which he 
sailed, whereupon Ojeda calmly replied that his commission was 
on his ship, and on Roldan's accompanying him to the ships he 
showed him his license, with Fonseca's signature thereto. Roldan 
met on Ojeda's ships a number of persons whom he knew, and 
these also confirmed Ojeda's account of his voyage, as each one 
had some articles taken from the places they had visited. Ojeda 
gave Roldan his assurance that he would sail to San Domingo 
and report to the admiral. The baffled Roldan returned to his 
ships and sailed to San Domingo. 

Although Ojeda had far exceeded his license in his voyage, he 
knew he could rely upon Bishop Fonseca's hatred for Columbus 
to secure an easy endorsement of his course. In fact, he had 
fitted out the expedition at his own expense, and the crown was 



414 ' OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

to receive a fixed share of the profits. Isabella was then in such 
poor health that she was unable to give any attention to these or 
other public affairs ; but the wily and selfish Ferdinand, ever 
suspicious and unsympathetic with the admiral, either knew and 
favored this unlawful voyage, or connived at it. In itself the ex- 
pedition possessed a practical and geographical importance, and 
many skilful men were members of it. Confident of his strength 
at home, and seeing now a field opening before him for his reck- 
less and daring enterprise, he deceived Roldan with a false 
promise, which he never intended to keep, and then sailed to 
Xaragua, where he landed in February, 1500, and accepted the 
leadership of the rebels, a position which these miscreants had 
thought Roldan had basely deserted. Ojeda had now a cause 
to champion and defend ; he was to right the wrongs of these 
his fellow-subjects, and to strike down the despotism of Colum- 
bus, whom the rebels accused of every form of tyranny and in- 
justice, even the non-payment of their dues. 

Emboldened by his accession of strength, and announcing" 
that he was chosen to advise or rather to watch the admiral, and 
that the loyal Carvajal was united with him in this trust, encour- 
aged by the growing unpopularity of Columbus, sustained by 
the chicaner}^ of Fonseca and by the jealousy of Ferdinand, 
Ojeda not only raised his standard against the admiral, but with 
his characteristic recklessness he proposed to march at once on 
San Domingo and compel the admiral to pay the men at once, 
or to expel him from Hispaniola. The proposal to march on 
San Domingo led to opposition from the timid, while it was 
received with applause by the reckless. A clash of strength and 
of arms among the rebels now took place, resulting in bloodshed 
and several deaths ; but the more desperate and brutal party 
triumphed. On to San Domingo was now the battle cry of the 
rebels. 

Cognizant of the desperate character of Ojeda and of his 
treasonable acts at the head of the new rebellion at Xaragua, 
Columbus sent Roldan, who had proved faithful, at least as long 
as it was his interest to do so, to his new responsibilities, to 
watch the rebels and check them. On his way to Xaragua 
Roldan secured the union of the men then with Diego de Esco- 
bar, his former confederate, with his own, and marched toward 
the rebel camp. He narrowly escaped assassination by his- 



ON COLUMBUS. 415 

former followers, now disgusted by his loyalty. Ojeda, in the 
face of such a force brought against him, now for the first time 
in his chivalrous career avoided his foe, and prudently retired 
to his ships. Roldan and Ojeda, each conscious of the other's 
skill at strategy or open war, tested each other's adroitness at 
deception as well as in manoeuvres. Ojeda declined to treat 
with his wily adversary, messengers passed between them, and 
some became prisoners in the effort to open negotiations, and 
were held as hostages. When Ojeda sailed twelve leagues to 
the province of Caha}^ to get provisions by plundering the 
natives, Roldan followed and forced him to his ships. A strategy 
of Roldan gained him an advantage over Ojeda, each trying to 
outwit the other, and Ojeda lost his small boat and its crew, 
several of whom were v/ounded and the others taken prisoners 
by Roldan. This last incident led to a parley on the water 
between these two cunning men, each in his own small boat, and 
after much adroit negotiation terms were agreed upon : the cap- 
tured boat was restored to Ojeda, the hostages and prisoners 
were exchanged. Ojeda agreed to sail from the island, and 
while sailing out threatened to return again with a more power- 
ful fleet and army. Hearing that he had again landed at a dis- 
tant part of the island, Roldan again pursued Ojeda, when the 
latter finally sailed out to sea, and Hispaniola was freed from his 
dangerous machinations. It is related, however, that this un- 
principled freebooter afterward landed either in some part of 
Hispaniola or perhaps at Porto Rico, where he ruthlessly seized 
large gangs of the unhappy natives and carried them to Cadiz, 
where he sold them as slaves.* 

To have won Roldan over to the support of his administration 
and to the defence of law and order was a master-stroke of 
policy on the part of the admiral. In fact, but for the fidelity 
of Roldan and the success of his efTorts it seems almost certain 
that the admiral would have wholly succumbed under his un- 
paralleled trials and misfortunes. The present services of Rol- 
dan, rendered probably from interested motives, would go far 
to atone for his former atrocities and treasons. 



* Las Casas, " Hist. Ind.," lib. i., cap. clxix. ; Fernando Columbus, " His*, del Al- 
mirante," cap. Ixxxiv. ; Irving's " Columbus," vol. ii., pp. 224-29 ; Dr. Barry's trans- 
lation of De Lorgues' "Columbus," p. 401 et seq. ; Brownson's translation of Tar- 
ducci's " Life of Colbmbus," vol. ii., pp. 154-58. 



41 6 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

Just as the dawn began to appear to the troubled vision of the 
admiral, another storm burst with violence on the horizon of his 
saddened fortunes, in the unlooked-for conspiracy of Guevara 
and Moxica. Roldan's followers in the late struggle with Ojeda, 
being in a great measure his former confederates in rebellion, 
looked from the beginning for generous rewards for their ser- 
vices, and the time had now arrived for them to demand, as they 
clamorously did, for a division among themselves of the lands in 
the fertile and beautiful province of Cahay. Roldan was now a 
man of law and order, and rather than yield as he formerly did 
to such demands, he gave them lands of his own in the province 
of Xaragua. Though he requested permission to return to San 
Domingo, he readily yielded obedience to the admiral's request 
that he would remain in Xaragua to meet Ojeda in case of his 
return to the island. 

Among the recent comers to Xaragua was Don Hernando de 
Guevara, a young nobleman as noted for his unbridled passions 
and manners as for his depravity and dissoluteness ; and for the 
latter qualities he had been banished by the admiral from the 
island. He was a cousin of Adrian de Moxica, one of Roldan's 
late principal supporters in rebeUion. On his arriving too late to 
embark on on? of Ojeda's ships, Roldan had given him permis- 
sion to remain in Cahay, a favorite spot with the idle and disso- 
lute, and in consequence of Roldan's kind reception of him he 
had been received as a visitor at the house of Anacaona, the 
sister of the cacique Behechio, who commanded the respect even 
of the most degraded Spaniards, and who, in spite of the mis- 
conduct and self-degradation of the Spaniards, still entertained a 
friendship (or the Spanish conquerors. The visits of Guevara 
to her house led to a mutual attachment between him and her 
3-oung and beautiful daughter, Higuenamota. The 3^oung Span- 
iard had chosen Cahay as his residence because of its proximity 
to the neighboring province of Xaragua, the residence of his 
lover, and there also his Cousin Moxica had an estate, where he 
was training dogs and hawks for hunting, Roldan discovered 
the cause of Guevara's sojourn here, and, as some supposed, 
moved by jealousy and his own affection for the Indian beauty, 
he ordered the young hidalgo to depart from Xaragua to his 
post at Cahay. Seeking the girl in marriage, favored by the 
mother, and having had his intended bride baptised a Christian, 



ON COLUMBUS. 41/ 

Guevara disregarded the orders of Roldan, and lingered on in 
the house of Anacaona in Xaragua. Upon further remonstrance 
and peremptory orders from Roldan, and while protesting the 
most honorable intentions and his design to enter into lawful 
wedlock, he obeyed and left Xaragua, and retired to Cahay. 
Three days of absence from his Indian fiancee was too much for 
Guevara. He returned to Xaragua, and with several of his 
friends was concealed in the house of Anacaona, but on discovery 
was again ordered by Roldan to depart. The young cavalier 
now assumed a tone of defiance and threats, but finding this did 
not move the stern Alcalde Mayor, he resorted to the most 
piteous entreaties, and thus won the desired permission to remain 
in Xaragua for the time. 

Crossed in his love, and probably himself suspecting the 
motives of Roldan to be those of a disappointed rival, Guevara 
laid plans for revenge, made up a band of partisans from Roldan's 
late fellow-rebels, now his bitter haters, and their plan was to 
take him by surprise and suddenly kill him or put out his eyes. 
Roldan got word of the plot and acted with characteristic vigor 
and promptness by seizing Guevara in Anacaona's house in the 
presence of the expectant bride, arresting seven of his accom- 
plices, and sending an account of the affair to the admiral, for he 
now professed to act in all things only by the admiral's orders. 
The latter ordered all the prisoners to be sent to the fortress of 
San Domingo. 

The unfortunate island of Hispaniola was again fired with ex- 
citement and racked with Spanish sedition. Moxica, Requelme, 
and other former rebels and companions of Roldan, united in 
the most vehement appeals to all the rebellious elements of the 
island, to band together to avenge the wrongs of the gallant Gue- 
vara and of the beautiful Higuenamota. As if by magic a rebel 
battalion was formed, horses, weapons, ammunition, and all the 
means of war were soon brought together, and now nothing less 
than the rescue of Guevara and the deaths of Roldan and Colum- 
bus were proclaimed. The latter, trusting to the men to whom 
he had forgiven so much and upon whom he had bestowed 
such princely favors, would have fallen an easy victim to their 
rage but for a timely word of warning brought by a deserter 
from the conspirators, who seemed upon the eve of carrying 
out their plans, even to the seizure of the government, the assas- 



41 8 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

sination of Columbus, and the usurpation of the chief command 
in lieu of the murdered admiral. Both Columbus and Roldan 
acted with extreme rapidity and ^ rigor, for unless all were saved 
at once, all would be lost. While Mr. Irving states that it was 
the admiral who in person struck the blow, De Lorgues and 
Tarducci relate it as having been accomplished in person by 
Roldan. Taking the account of the two latter, it is related that 
the ever-vigilant Roldan, taking with him a chosen and well- 
armed few — seven of his own domestics and two soldiers — fell 
upon the unwary conspirators suddenly at night, and captured 
them all by a single stroke. On receiving Roldan's report of 
the capture and a request for instructions, the admiral answered 
in characteristic terms : " I had determined to hurt no one, but 
his [Moxica's] ingratitude compelled me to alter this resolve ; 
nor would I act otherwise with my own brother if he wanted to 
assassinate me and usurp the lordship which m}'^ king and queen 
had given into my custody." Roldan was instructed to proceed 
with rigor against these outlaws, and to enforce the law, which 
he did without delay. Moxica and some of his ringleaders were 
condemned to death, some were banished, and the others were 
sentenced to imprisonment. Of Roldan, Tarducci remarks that 
his proceedings were conducted " with the inflexible vigor of 
justice peculiar to all knaves like him, after escaping from th& 
penalty their own crimes deserved, and putting on the garb of 
an honest man ;" and the Count de Lorgues states that he acted 
in all things with " deference for the least desires of the viceroy." 
His method of proceedmg to execute the sentence, however,, 
was Roldan's, not the admiral's ; for the latter was never deaf 
to the voice of mercy, even when dealing with the most hardened 
criminals. 

When Moxica saw the scaffold erected on the fort for his exe- 
cution he abandoned his ruffianism and bravado, lost all courage, 
and was seized with pitiable fear. But with the deceitfulness of 
his true self he sent for a confessor, and by designedly prolong- 
ing his confession, or, as De Lorgues says, by repulsing his con- 
fessor, he lengthened his respite in hopes that his sympathizers 
might rescue him. He even descended to the cowardly device 
of accusing others. Finally, Roldan, incensed at his cowardice 
and exasperated at his chicanery, cut short his confession, and 
had him hung from the battlements of the fort. De Lorgues 



ON COLUMBUS. 419 

States that he " ordered the wretch to be flung from the top of 
the fortress into the fosse." Guevara was detained as a prisoner 
for some time, but was sent on June 15th to the admiral at Fort 
Conception. While the execution of the others was delayed, 
the sentences pronounced were mostly executed with rigor, and 
the conspirators still at large were followed up by Roldan, who is 
said to have carried a priest with him to confess the criminals 
before death, and that they were executed on the ver}- spot 
where they were caught. This account is supposed to have 
been exaggerated by Roldan 's enemies, for the tower contained 
at one time seventeen awaiting trial, while the agents of the law 
were pursuing the others with unrelenting severity. The de- 
tails of the execution of the sentences are not given, except in 
the case of Moxica ; but De Lorgues states that the sentences 
were carried into effect by the united and vigorous action of 
Columbus and the then righteous Alcalde Mayor. It is said of 
the admiral by Mr. Irving, " We cannot wonder that he should 
at last let fall the sword of justice which he had hitherto held 
suspended." * 

Order and peace now reigned temporarily in the island of His- 
paniola, but it was the work of fire and sword, of the scaffold 
and the tower. The measures of the admiral had proved effec- 
tual, even at the gloomiest moment of his life, for the crushing 
out of a series of rebellions as wicked and lawless as anything, 
related in history. Of Roldan it must be said that he proved 
himself now the most efficient and willing instrument of justice. 
The faction which had so long defied all law and justice ; had 
despoiled and wronged the natives ; had made a pandemonium 
of what had but lately been seen by the new-comers as an earthly 
paradise ; had nearly crushed the first advances of civilization 
and Christianity in the new world ; had nearly accomplished the 
destruction of the discoverer of the Western Hemisphere, and 
ruined his great enterprise, was now effectually broken, under 



* See Herrera, who, however, attributes erroneously to the admiral the more promi- 
nent part taken by Roldan in these transactions ; Fernando Columbus, " Hist, del 
Almirante," cap. 84. In his lettei^to the governess of Prince Juan, the admiral him- 
self says : "The Alcalde seized him, [Moxica] and a part of his band, and the fact is, 
he did justice on them without my having ordered it." Brownson's translation of 
Tarducci's "Columbus," vol. ii., pp. 158-64; Irving's " Columbus," vol. ii., pp. 230- 
38 ; Barry's translation of De Lorgues' " Life of Columbus," p. 404. 



420 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

the vigorous administration of Columbus. Results now began 
to bear their fruits. The Spanish power and the authority of 
the admiral were now universally recognized and obeyed. The 
Indians, whose outbreaks had been instigated by the basest of 
the white men, now became docile and submissive, gave evi- 
dences of their capacity to receive civilization by pursuing the 
peaceful labors of agriculture, by wearing clothes to cover their 
nakedness, and by willingly assisting the Spaniards in the culti- 
vation of the soil and other industries. 

During this scathing ordeal of adversity, disaster, danger, and 
humiliation Columbus passed through one of those mental and 
moral crises which, while exhibiting the weakness of a noble 
and brave nature, proves the faith of the man in God, and brings 
to light the profound religious caste of the admiral's character. 
In December, when his fortunes were at their lowest ebb, dis- 
trustful of the fidelit}' of Roldan, in whom he was compelled to 
trust, and consequently in whose power he was, harassed by 
the general prevalence of disloyalty and treason among his own 
colonists, alarmed at the descent of Ojeda upon Hispaniola and 
his union with Roldan's former confederates, constantly disturbed 
by reports of Indian insurrections, and in daily apprehension of 
assassination ; when he felt that he was abandoned by fortune, 
alone in a wilderness, aged, infirm, and deserted by men, he 
sank beneath the load of his misfortunes. He could not even 
turn to his own sovereigns, whom he had so nobly served and 
honored, for Isabella was sinking in health, and Ferdinand had 
been cold, distrustful, and now almost malevolent, even in the 
midst of his chilling politeness ; nor could he turn to his adopted 
country, for his enemies had covered his name with opprobrium 
and dishonor ; nor could he find solace in even seeking protec- 
tion with those poor Indians whom his enemies had exasperated 
against him and made his enemies, and who, scandalized by the 
vices of the Cnristians, had turned away from the religion which 
might have saved them. In his despondency this strong man 
sank down with a mortal fear — he seemed for the moment to 
loathe mankind. The instinct of self-preservation, induced by 
the constant fear of assassination, took possession of his mind ; 
the brave man, who had faced every danger on land and sea, now 
became overcome with fear. He resolved to fly from men, to 
cast himself with his brothers into a caravel, and to take refuge 



ON COLUMBUS. 421 

on the ocean which he loved, from his enemies who so hated 
him. It is not related that any definite plan or place of destina- 
tion had taken shape in his mind. It would seem that he thought 
only of casting himself into the arms of Providence. 

The profoundly religious character of Columbus, in this peril- 
ous crisis of his life, was his only source of reviving hope, and 
restored his confidence. He related in his own fervid words 
this singular incident in his life, and in this, as in other similar 
and remarkable occurrences, he regarded his mental and moral 
resurrection as a miracle. In his letter to the governess of 
Prince Juan he writes : " On Christmas Day (1499), being in 
utter anguish from the torments caused me by the wicked Chris- 
tians and the Indians, and on the point of abandoning everything 
to save my life, if possible, God our Lord comforted me by say- 
ing miraculously, ' Take courage, yield not to sadness or fear ; 
I will care for everything. The seven years of the term of gold 
are not yet expired, and for that and all else I am able to pro- 
vide.' . . . That same day I learned there were eighty 
leagues of the soil in which gold mines were found at every 
step, so that they seemed to form a single mine." After again 
repeating the account of his extreme dejection and miraculous 
relief, he explains or relates the vow he had taken, that on dis- 
covering the new world he would, within seven years, from the 
profits and revenues of his discoveries, fit out fifty thousand 
infantry and five thousand cavalry for the deliverance of the 
Holy Sepulchre, and the same number within the next five 
years. This explains the term " the seven years of the term of 
sold." He now, at this critical moment, also received con- 
firmation of the trustworthiness of Roldan, and heard of the dis- 
covery of the new gold mines. Followed as these good tidings 
were by the favorable reports of peace and good order prevail- 
ing throughout the island, this devout Christian began to re- 
prove himself for doubting for a moment that Providence would 
take care of him, even by a miracle. In the midst of his joy he 
felt remorse at his doubts, and he relates that he heard a voice 
within him saying, " O man of little faith, take heart ; what 
dost thou fear when I am with thee !" * 



* Fernando Columbus, " Hist, del Almirante," cap. Ixxxvi. ; letter to the governess 
of Prince Juan ; Dr. Barry's translation of De Lorgues' " Columbus,"" p. 401 ; Irving's 



422 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

Little did the man then anticipate that his joy would be soon 
followed by the most severe trials, humiliations, and wrongs of 
his checkered and eventful life. 

While all the disloyal, turbulent, criminal, and rebellious ele- 
ments in Hispaniola were struggling to overthrow his authority, 
to wrest the first American colonial estal^lishraent from his hands, 
and to destro}' even his life, the envious elements in official and 
private life in Spain were banded together in an effort to blacken 
his reputation, to discredit his achievements and enterprises, to 
undei^value his services, and to multiply accusations against 
him. His enemies played upon the king's needs and his avarice 
by representing the admiral's accounts of the wealth of the new 
countries as exaggerated and false. Every vessel that returned 
from the newl}^ discovered " Ophir of Solomon" brought fresh 
demands for money, provisions, and outfits of every kind, instead 
of being freighted with gold, merchandise, precious stones, 
and spices. The admiral and his brothers were represented as 
unused to govern others or administer affairs, were upstart for- 
eigners, now elated with power and fortune. They were ac- 
cused of being disloyal, and even the report was circulated that 
the admiral and his brothers were looking around for some 
powerful nation or prince as an ally, intending to discard the 
Spanish sovereigns and the Spanish nation, and proclaim the 
admiral to be the independent sovereign, in his own right, of 
the countries he had discovered. The charges of cruelty to the 
natives, of arrogance toward the Spaniards, and incompetency 
to rule were apparently confirmed by the distorted and prej- 
udiced accounts of the disappointed, sick, or criminal colonists 
returning by every ship, and by the letters received from the 
same classes remaining in Hispaniola. These unfortunate creat- 
ures, who had returned to Spain bearing the curse of their own 
crimes, passions, and lawlessness, were encouraged by persons 
in higher positions and in official stations to flock to Granada, to 
besiege the king with their lamentations whenever he appeared 
in public, and even to invade the halls of the Alhambra with 
accusations against the admiral. The}' petitioned the king to 
pay them their just dues, withheld, as they said, by Columbus. 



" Columbus," vol. ii., p. 237; Brownson's translation of Tarducci's "Life of Colum- 
bus," vol. ii.. pp. 150, 151. 



ON COLUMBUS. 423 

A band of fifty of these malcontents made their way into the 
inner court of the palace, and crowding under the royal apart- 
ments piteously held up in their hands bunches of grapes as the 
only food left to men who had crossed the ocean and returned 
in the service of the crown. The criminal and vicious of the 
population, and the worst of the late rebels under Roldan and 
Ojeda, were the most clamorous. Even the sons of Columbus, 
pages at court, as they passed one day out of the palace were 
followed with jeers and imprecations, and the mob greeted their 
ears with the exclamation : " Look at those whelps, the sons of 
the admiral, of him who discovered the land of vanity and 
delusion, the grave of Spanish gentlemen !" 

It was in vain that Columbus wrote by each returning ship 
true and detailed accounts of the affairs of Hispaniola. In vain 
his frank and energetic letters traced the causes of disorder, 
misfortune, and distress to their true sources, the very vices, 
misconduct, and crimes of these miscreants now playing the rdle 
of his victims. In vain the defender of Spanish dominion in the 
new world pointed out the true evils existing in Hispaniola, and 
lucidly suggested the remedies. His letters arrived at long 
intervals, while his enemies were there on the spot, incessantly 
clamoring against him, and their ranks were constantly increas- 
ing by new arrivals of his enemies from Hispaniola. Ferdinand 
was only too much inclined to listen to such calumnies ; for while 
his jealous nature failed to appreciate the great discovery, he 
regretted the bestowal of the title of viceroy upon Columbus, 
and never addressed or spoke of him otherwise than as admiral ; 
he felt the pinching effects of the constant demands of the colony 
upon his exchequer, already depleted by his ambitious and selfish 
schemes, and did not conceal his disappointment at the small re- 
turns of gold from the new world. Nor could so skilful a dis- 
simulator refrain from betraying his distrust, even his hostility 
to Columbus. The just and friendly mind of Isabella became 
influenced, in spite of her uprightness and generosity of charac- 
ter, unconsciously by the unceasing clamor and complaints 
against the true supporter of the honor of Spain. She never 
abandoned him or his cause, but she could not overcome the 
unfavorable influences of such universal discontents and accusa- 
tions. How could so much be alleged, and by so many mouths, 
unless there was some foundation for it ! She was as much dis- 



424 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

tressed as she was disconcerted. Even the letters of Columbus 
himself drew a most lamentable picture of the condition of His- 
paniola. Did not that of itself argue a want of success, if not a 
want of ability, for conducting its government and administra- 
tion ? The sight of the poor natives, men and women, children 
and young girls, some of the last the daughters of caciques, 
moved her noble heart to sympathy and indignation ; and 
although these had been seduced away from their homes by the 
ruffians to whom Columbus was forced by prudence and neces- 
sity to give permission to return to Spain, others carried away 
clandestinely, and only a few had been given by him to those 
rebels under the terms of capitulation in order to secure peace 
to the distracted island, all were represented as gifts or transfers 
made by the admiral, and his conduct in this was colored with 
the most repulsive hues. And though his letters gave a true 
and quite different account of the affair, still the tale of betrayal, 
misery, suffering, and love of lost homes was too much for the 
tender heart of Isabella. Her noblest feelings were moved when 
she learned that some of these innocent and injured victims of 
remorseless passions and cruelty were pregnant, and others bear- 
ing newly born infants in their arms, and she indignantly and sor- 
rowfully exclaimed, " What power has the admiral to give away 
my vassals?" This generous queen and noble woman instantly 
commanded all the poor Indians to be returned to their country 
and homes, both those recently as well as those formerly sent from 
the islands to Spain. The real enslavers of the Indians seemed 
not only to escape, but even to carry their measures. Fortune 
seemed to favor them and to frown upon Columbus. At this critical 
jvmcture, as we have seen already that tribute and labor as a meas- 
ure of State polic}^ and necessit}'^, sanctioned by the sentiments and 
customs of the age and country, had been adopted in Hispaniola, 
so now unfortunately a letter was received from him recommend- 
ing the continuance of Indian bondage for some time to come as 
promotive of the development of the colony. This letter, taken 
in conjunction with the instances of enslavement before her eyes, 
decided the indignant queen to unite in decreeing and carr3dng 
out the measures which the king and the enemies of the admiral 
were now designing. At this juncture in the sad career of the 
discoverer there Avere not wanting enemies in the higher and 
more enlightened walks of life to aid and abet in this unworthy 



ON COLUMBUS. 425 

warfare the malice of rebels, murderers, seducers, and conspira- 
tors. Shameful it is that history is obliged to record among- 
these enemies and revilers of Columbus two persons whose 
influence should have been thrown on the side of truth, justice, 
and mercy, such men as Father Boil and Bishop Fonseca. 
They certainly did not thus serve the good Master whose mission 
they professed to execute. Among all historians, whether lay 
or ecclesiastic, there is not a voice raised except in their con- 
demnation. 

There is no one of the distinguished characters who figured 
prominently in the discovery of America that had a more brill- 
iant opportunity of inscribing his name and his fame on the 
choicest pages of history than King Ferdinand. But he faltered 
and failed, abandoned, and then betrayed the most illustrious 
personage in this great drama. Columbus and Isabella will ever 
receive the applause of the world and of posterit3% but the de- 
fault of Ferdinand has broken up an illustrious triumvirate. 
There are two peerless characters in this great event : Colum- 
bus, the discoverer, and Isabella, his generous patroness ; but 
others participated in their glory in various degrees. 

King Ferdinand from the beginning acted from avaricious, 
selfish, jealous, and distrustful motives in these great events. 
If in the beginning he seemed to act like a prince, it was only 
the reflected royalty and generosity of Isabella. Columbus 
essayed the discovery of a new world, the redemption of the 
Hoi)' Land, and the erection of a new Christendom. He stands 
forth an exalted character ; his misfortunes add grandeur to his 
career and win the sympathies of the world. 

Failing to realize a replenished exchequer from the new world 
immediately, the selfish and crafty king resolved early in the 
spring of 1499 upon a measure of gross injustice to Columbus. 
It involved nothing less than the appointment of a commissioner 
to proceed to the viceregal domain, to investigate its condition 
and the administration of Columbus, to decide upon the most 
urgent matters, and to refer the rest to the crown. The com- 
missioner appointed was Don Francisco de Bobadilla, an officer 
of the kinpf's household and a commander of the noble and illus- 
trious religious and military Order of Calatrava. The first com- 
mission, dated March 21st, 1499, was evidently aimed at the 
rebels, and while it empowered another to deal summarily with 



426 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

them, instead of strengthening the hands of the admiral for that 
purpose, it did not in effect otherwise vary from the repeated 
requests of the admiral himself for the appointment of such a 
commissioner to assist him in restoring peace and order in His- 
paniola, especially the request he made in his letter of October 
1 8th, 1498. His position and authority were in this letter, how- 
ever, expressly recognized by the authority given by it to the 
commissioner, in case of necessity, to invoke the aid of the 
admiral and all others exercising authority on the island. Had 
the desired relief been extended to the admiral when he requested 
it, in the fall of 1498, there would have been no necessity for 
further measures, for he then requested the recall of Roldan to 
Europe to be judged by their Majesties. 

The current of slander and injustice had now set in against 
Columbus with malignant and insatiable force. The measure 
adopted in the commission of March 21st, 1499, might have re- 
lieved the island and its viceroy, but the appointment of Boba- 
dilla, whose subsequent unprovoked injustice and malice against 
Columbus showed how the enemies of the latter had triumphed 
in securing the selection of one of his bitterest though, perhaps, 
secret enemies. Not satisfied with this advantage gained, the 
admiral's enemies followed up their conspiracy with such per- 
sistent skill as finally to secure to their measures the approval 
of the noble and magnanimous queen. 

The increase of the admiral's unpopularity may be measured 
by the steady progress of the injustice of the royal measures 
adopted against him. The sovereigns were next induced to 
issue another and broader commission to Bobadilla, dated May 
2ist, 1499, which is addressed to the counsellors, judges, magis- 
trates, cavaliers, gentlemen, officers, and inhabitants of the 
colony, in which Bobadilla's appointment as Governor-General 
of the Indies is announced, and in which the admiral and viceroy 
is not even mentioned. Bobadilla is now expressly invested 
with full civil and criminal jurisdiction, and all cavaliers and 
other persons now in the islands discovered by Columbus, or 
arriving thereafter, were commanded to quit them if Bobadilla 
should deem it necessary for the benefit of the royal service, and 
not to return to them, but to repair to Spain ; and for these 
purposes all necessary powers were conferred on him, and all 
Avere ordered to obe}^ his orders on the spot, without recourse to 



ON COLUMBUS. 427 

the sovereigns and without appeal, under such penalties as 
Bobadilla himself might think proper to impose. So general 
were these powers and instructions, that they plainly placed 
Columbus himself and his brothers in the power of Bobadilla. 
Another letter of the same date commands Columbus and his 
brothers to surrender the forts, vessels, magazines, arms, am- 
munition, and everything belonging to the king into the hands 
of Bobadilla as governor, under the same penalties as were 
denounced against all such as refuse to comply with similar 
orders. In this letter Columbus Avas designated as admiral of 
the ocean. A fourth letter was signed only five days later, on 
May 26th, which was addressed to the admiral himself, and by 
that title only, announcing the appointment of Bobadilla, and 
commanding full faith and obedience to be accorded to him. 

The first letter, being directed only against the rebels, appar- 
ently did not satisfy the enemies of Columbus, whose efforts 
were aimed directly at him. But they argued with the queen, 
whose reluctance to proceed against the admiral was manifest — 
why send out Bobadilla powerless in case his investigations 
prove the admiral to be the wrongdoer ? Why in such case 
should he not be provided with ample authority to proceed 
against the real dehnquent at once, rather than paralyze his 
work by suspending all proceedings until he could return to 
Spain, make his report to the sovereigns, and then, perhaps, 
when it was too late, send out another mandate to bring the 
admiral to justice ? If the admiral should prove to be innocent, 
then the two letters of May 21st would be of no use, and it was 
consequently understood that in such case they should not be 
produced or made public. Specious as this argument was, it 
succeeded with the queen, though it is quite evident by this 
arrangement Columbus and his brothers were placed within the 
discretionary power of Bobadilla, for he was empowered to 
decide who was to blame. He could readily decide that Columbus 
was the one at fault, with the foregone conclusion that he would 
be proceeded against immediately. What could have been more 
unjust than the entrustment of such a discretion over any man 
in the hands of his enemy ? It would be a temptation to any 
ambitious man, though not an enemy already. 

So reluctant was the queen to proceed against one whom she 
so highly honored and esteemed, that these measures remained 



428 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

suspended long after they had assumed a definite shape. In the 
autumn of 1499 ^^^ returning rebels arrived in Spain, and in the 
fact that they brought with them slaves assigned to them by 
Columbus was the final argument and cogent reason which his 
enemies were anxiously awaiting, and which they promptly and 
eagerly used with success. The poor unfortunate Indian girls, 
whose sad condition touched the hearts of the good queen and 
her subjects, were not in fact assigned to these miscreants by 
the admiral, but had been seized or seduced by the rebels in 
their lawless marches through Hispaniola. But the contrary 
was industriously made to appear to the queen, and her gener- 
ous nature was aroused by the charge that such wrongs were 
perpetrated under her reign. There was scarcely a voice raised 
on the side of truth and justice. Guided by her womanly senti- 
ments and queenly indignation, she immediately commanded 
that all who had received slaves from the admiral should deliver 
them up, to be returned to their country and their families, 
under the penalty of death ; but she excepted from this decree all 
such Indians as had been previously .brought from Hispaniola, 
alleging as the ground of this exception that it was known that 
these had been taken as prisoners in a just war. Alas ! how far 
short of perfection or complete justice do the most exalted of 
human actions fall ! Prisoners in a just war ! On which side 
does justice cling in a war waged on the one side by the invaders 
of the peaceful country and homes of an inoffensive portion of 
mankind, children of one common Father, and waged on the 
other in defence of country, home, famil}^ property, wife, chil- 
dren, and of every natural right ? Has man no inherent rights, 
in a state of nature, which civilized man is bound to respect ? 
Again, why should the admiral, whose heart was as tender to 
the Indians as Queen Isabella's, and who had given a new world 
with all its inhabitants to Spain, be condemned without a hear- 
ing ? No wonder that Bobadilla, whose character and acts do 
not rise above those of Roldan and Ojeda, of Margarite and his 
confederates, of Boil and Fonseca, should have felt and seen 
that the cause of Columbus was prejudged, and that he had 
nothing in his meditated action more congenial to himself or 
more loudly demanded than to capture his victim and load him 
with every wrong and injustice ! 

The execution of these harsh measures against Columbus was 



^^ 



ON COLUMBUS. 429 

delayed for a year. Probably the reluctance of Isabella may 
have added to this delay ; but it is manifest that this delay 
greatly added to the rigor and injustice of the intended blow. 
Heretofore the admiral had found in the noble and magnanimous 
queen an unfailing friend, a just and upright sovereign, a sym- 
pathizing patroness, and a bulwark of strength against all his 
enemies. When this support and consolation failed him, truly 
his cause was desperate, and well might he have felt a fear of 
the race, and have cast himself upon the oce^in in despair. What 
must have been the poison instilled into her heart and mind on 
her visit to Seville, where Fonseca and his minions gained her 
over to the cause of the admiral's enemies ! From the time of 
this visit Columbus had lost favor with this noble queen. Not 
only are his demands refused, and those even by which he re- 
quested that his eldest son, Don Diego, might be sent to him, 
but her signature was given to those unjust and ungrateful de- 
crees which clouded his approach to the grave with sorrow and 
ingratitude. 

Bobadilla's commission having been made out and delivered 
to him, with all the solemnity of so important a royal act, he 
thenceforth only delayed his departure in waiting for a favorable 
season for the voyage. He sailed from Spain for San Domingo 
about the middle of July, 1500, with two caravels, and he car- 
ried with him a military guard of twenty-five men, who had been 
enlisted for this purpose for a year. To this singular expedition 
was added a body of six missionaries or friars sent out in special 
charge of the Indians then returned to Hispaniola, and to labor 
for the conversion of the natives. As if to stamp the roj^al 
credence on the charge that Columbus had not paid the men 
enlisted in the royal service, without regard to the truth or 
justice of the act, a decree was handed to Bobadilla authorizing 
him to ascertain and discharge all arrears due by the crown, and 
to compel the admiral to pay whatever he might personally owe, 
in order that, as the decree alleged, " each one should receive 
whatever was due him, and there should be no more com- 
plaints." But the sovereigns made themselves responsible for 
all the acts of oppression and injustice their commissioner might 
commit, by confiding to him several letters in blank, bearing the 
royal signatures, in order that, filling them up with his own 
orders, he might accomplish all things necessary for his mission. 



430 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

Whatever limits might have been placed on Bobadilla's powers 
by the commission, this license to use the royal signatures for 
his purposes placed every person in Hispaniola under the arbi- 
trary will of this prejudiced, incompetent, and unworthy official. 
To his enmity for Columbus was added that bane of small minds 
and souls, the intoxication of authority.* 

The two caravels, with Bobadilla and his attendants and soldiers 
on board, arrived on August 23, 1 500, before the harbor of San Do- 
mingo. Don Diego, the admiral's brother, was then in command 
at that city, while the admiral was at Fort Conception, enlarging 
its works and regulating the affairs of the Vega, where the Indian 
population was most numerous. Don Bartholomew Columbus was 
then in Xaragiia, engaged with Roldan in following up and en- 
forcing the sentences pronounced against the fugitive rebels. 
Don Diego sent a boat to the vessels, which he supposed were 
sent out with supplies and to bring out the admiral's eldest son, 
Don Diego ; but Bobadilla in person answered the inquiries thus 
made, announcing himself as in command of the ships, and in- 
formed the men in the boat of the non-arrival in the ship of Don 
Diego Columbus, the admiral's son. Eager to commence his 
bad work, he obtained from the messenger information of the 
recent insurrection of Moxica, his dread punishment, the execu- 
tion of seven other rebels the same week, the present confine- 
ment of five others in the fort at San Domingo awaiting execu- 
tion, including Pedro Requelme and Fernando de Guevara, who 
had been so prominent in the recent troubles ; and he further 
ascertained that the admiral was in the Vega, Don Bartholomew 
in Xaragua, and Don Diego was acting governor at San Do- 
mingo. The news of the arrival of a royal commissioner created 
great excitement on shore, and awakened varied sentiments 
among the inhabitants, according to their respective relations to 
the authorities ; but the most joyous and clamorous at the 
arrival of Bobadilla were those who claimed that the admiral 



* Fernando Columbus, "Hist, del Almirante," cap. Ixxxv. ; Munoz, " Hist. Nuevo 
Mundo," unpublished portion quoted by Mr. Irving ; Las Casas, lib. i., cap. clxxix. ;. 
Oviedo, "Cronico," lib. iii., cap. vi. ; Herrera, decad. i., lib. iv., cap. vii. ; Girolamo 
Benzoni, " Storia del Nuevo Mundo," lib. i. ; Navarrete, "Col. Doc. Dipl.," No. 
cxxvii., cxxviii. ; Irving's " Columbus," vol. iii., pp. 239-47 ; Brownson's translation of 
Tarducci's " Life of Columbus," vol. iii., pp. 164-72; Dr. Barry's translation of De 
Lorgues' " Columbus," pp. 406, 407. 



ON COLUMBUS. 431 

had not paid their dues. On entering the harbor, the first sight 
that met Bobadilla's eager eyes were the bodies of two of the 
late rebels hanging from the gallows. Many eager self-seekers 
and enemies of Columbus hastened out to the ships to greet the 
new commissioner and make interest with the rising powers. 
Remaining all day on his ships, he lent a willing ear to the tales 
of his numerous visitors, who were the most unworthy members 
of the community, and whose conduct still exposed them to the 
criminal law for their misdeeds. In fact, Bobadilla was already, 
and even before landing and taking possession of his office, con- 
ducting an ex parte trial of the admiral in his absence, and none 
but his enemies, criminals before the law, were his informants. 
Before the landing of the commissioner his victim was already 
condemned. 

On the following day Bobadilla landed, with his attendants 
and followers, proceeded to the church, where he heard mass, 
and then, in front of the church, in the presence of the assembled 
crowd, which included Don Diego, Rodrigo Perez, and many 
principal officials of the island, he ordered to be read his letter 
of March 21st, giving him full authority over the rebels and 
their cases ; thereupon he unceremoniously demanded of Don 
Diego and the alcaldes the surrender to him of Requelme, 
Guevara, and all the other rebels, together with the depositions 
taken in their cases, and publicly summoned before him their 
accusers and all who had participated in their arrest and prose- 
cution. The mild but firm Don Diego declined, in the absence 
of the admiral, to accede to his demands, relying upon the titles 
and jurisdiction of the admiral and viceroy as superior to those 
of the commissioner, and demanded a copy of the royal letter 
for the admiral. Bobadilla insultingly refused this request, 
threatening all who refused obedience to him as commissioner 
with his powers as governor, and he asserted his power over the 
admiral himself. 

On the following morning Bobadilla, after again hearing mass 
— such men are apt to affect great piety and religion — again 
appeared before the assembled population, which was only too 
anxious to catch the first intimation of the movements of this 
formidable personage. Having first taken an official oath he 
caused the second royal patent to be read — that which invested 
him with the government of the islands and even of Terra Firma, 



432 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

discovered by Columbus, and of which he was appointed viceroy, 
not by mere tree selection, but by a solemn convention, based on 
mutual considerations. He demanded the obedience of Don Diego 
Columbus, Rodrigo Perez, and all the assembled subjects of the 
crown. He again demanded the delivery of the prisoners to 
him. The officials and citizens thus addressed, while deferen- 
tially protesting their respect for the letters of the sovereigns, 
firmly but respectfully asserted that the detention of the prisoners 
was by orders of the admiral and viceroy, who held under a 
solemn convention with the crown royal patents, titles, and 
jurisdictions of a superior character. Incensed at this refusal, 
and humbled by the evident impression it made on the assembly 
and the doubt it cast upon his authority, he now produced and 
had read his third royal mandate, by which Columbus and his 
brothers were ordered to deliver up to him all the fortresses, 
ships, and royal property of every kind, and still further, to 
ingratiate himself with the people, he produced and had read 
the remaining order of May 30th, by which the admiral was 
ordered to pay all dues unpaid to persons in the service of the 
crown, as well as all to whom he was personally indebted. The 
shouts of the rabble now proved that Bobadilla had gained their 
sympathies. A second demand for the prisoners having met 
with the same response, he proceeded to the fort, where he 
demanded the prisoners of the commandant, Miguel Diaz, the 
same that had discovered the rich mines of Hayna, accompany- 
ing his demand with threats to use force in obtaining them unless 
they were surrendered. The commandant of the fort excused 
himself under plea of having received his orders from the supe- 
rior authority of the admiral and viceroy, and parleyed with 
Bobadilla in order to gain time, for the fortress was a mere shell, 
destitute of any garrison, and occupied solely by the command- 
ant, Miguel Diaz, and Don Diego de Alvarado. Bobadilla now 
assembled together his military guard, the sailors, and others he 
had brought from Spain, and the rabble whom he had won over 
to his side ; and having approached cautiously and on several 
sides, he assailed the undefended fortress with quixotic valor 
and fury. The conquest was an easy one even for Bobadilla, as 
no defence was or could be made. On reaching the battlements 
he found there only Diaz and Alvarado with drawn swords, but 
offering no resistance to the motley rabble. The new commis- 



ON COLUMBUS. 433 

sioner took possession of the fortress with mock triumph and 
ceremony, and having had the prisoners brought up before him, 
and having gone through the empty ceremony of asking them a 
few questions, he gave them in charge of Juan de Espinosa, the 
alguacil. The official, Bobadilla, then seized the admiral's house 
and made it his own residence, plundering it completely, and 
taking possession of all the admiral's property and effects therein, 
including his arms, furniture, pearls, gold, plate, jewels, horses, 
together with even his private letters, manuscripts, and his most 
secret confidential papers. x\mong the properties seized were 
the admiral's mineralogical collection, curiosities, rare shells, his 
vegetable collection, and his religious memorials. Even the docu- 
ments necessary for his defence were seized and many of them 
suppressed. He took no account of his seizures, but proceeded 
summarily to confiscate everything to the crown, and denounced 
the admiral in terms of condemnation, alleging that he would 
send him in chains to Spain, and obliterate his jurisdictions and 
viceroyalty, his name and his lineage. No blundering tyrant 
could have proceeded in greater defiance of his instructions, or 
have done more to invalidate his own proceedings ; for his 
subsequent royal patents were only to be produced or used in 
case his first proceedings against the rebels proved ineffectual. 
He proceeded at once to execute the most remote, alternative 
and conditional powers, and this he did primarily and abruptly 
against the admiral. He thus proclaimed his true character — 
that of an outlaw. The admiral was condemned, and, in fact, 
sentenced to chains, imprisonment, transportation, and confisca- 
tion before he was seen or summoned, and before he was. ac- 
cused, heard, or defended, and in his absence — before even he 
had been made aware of the existence or powers of his judge or 
of the court. In his letter to the governess of Prince Juan, the 
admiral thus wrote of Bobadilla's plundering his house : " A 
corsair could have done no worse with a merchantman ; but 
what grieved me most of all was the loss of my papers, of none 
of which I have been able to recover possession, and the most 
necessary for my exculpation are precisely those he has kept the 
best concealed." "^ 



* Las Casas, "Hist. Ind.," lib. i., cap. clxxix. , Fernando Colombo, "Hist, del 
Almirante," cap. Ixxxv. ; Herrera, decad. i.,lib. iv., cap. xiii. ; Irving's "Columbus," 
vol. ii., pp. 248-54 ; Dr. Barry's translation of De Lorgues' "Columbus," pp. 408- 
10 ; Brownson's translation of Tarducci's " Life of Columbus," vol. ii., p. 172-77. 



434 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

That such an outlaw should have been a member of the house- 
hold of the King of Spain, that he should have been a commander 
of the once honorable and noble military and religious Order of 
Calatrava — an order created to celebrate the heroic capture of 
the city of Calatrava from the Moors — are facts which argue most 
unfavorably for the atmosphere of palaces and the discipline and 
honor of high-sounding orders. That he should have been ap- 
pointed thus to such an office was a true index to the character 
of King Ferdinand. Among the plunder seized in the house of 
the admiral were those fine specimens of virgin gold, as large as 
a hen's egg, which he had so carefully preserved for presenta- 
tion to the sovereigns, as the means both of verifying his state- 
ments and of sustaining the prosecution of his grand enterprise. 
Bobadilla did not think of the honesty which necessitated a 
measuring or weighing of the captured gold ; and in order to 
prevent the good impressions these large samples of gold would 
make upon the minds of the king and queen, he paid them out 
at once among the people. Coveting the support and applause 
of the low and sordid, he proclaimed an unrestricted license to 
all to collect gold for twenty years, and reduced the roj^al quota 
of the gold from a third to an eleventh. Thus he effectually 
turned Hispaniola over to robbers and outlaws for plunder and 
disorder. How shameful it is that the grandest of human enter- 
prises are clouded with such crimes and outrages ! 

Columbus had seen such outlaws as Roldanand Ojeda plunder 
the island and its natives ; he had more recently heard of a 
squadron under Vicente Yanez Pinzon touching at the coasts, 
and rumors of other lawless adventurers licensed by King Ferdi- 
nand, or at least connived at by him, in the neighborhood had 
reached him. When he heard of Bobadilla's high-handed pro- 
ceedings he thought he recognized in them the excesses of such 
or similar ruffians. It never occurred to him that this was a 
member of King Ferdinand's household, a commander of the 
Order of Calatrava, a new governor of Hispaniola, holding a com- 
mission signed by such illustrious sovereigns. Puzzled at the 
outrages and successes imputed by rumor to Bobadilla, he 
cautiously proceeded from Conception to Bonao, in order to be 
nearer to the scene and obtain more prompt information of the 
usurpation and proceedings of this intruder, for so far he had 
not received the courtesy of a letter, a message, or even a sum- 



ON COLUMBUS. 435 

mons. He wrote, however, to Bobadilla in conciliatory terms, 
welcomed him to Hispaniola, cautioned him against such rash 
measures as the general license to collect gold, and announced 
his own intention of returning to Spain, leaving Bobadilla in pos- 
session of the government. He received no answer to his letter. 
But scarcely had he arrived at this place when an alcalde, bear- 
ing the staff and insignia of office, arrived, proclaimed the appoint- 
ment of Bobadilla as governor, and bearing copies of his royal 
commissions. Conscious of his own innocence, relying upon 
the transcendent services he had rendered to the crown, and 
trusting to the honor of the sovereigns, to whom his relations 
were defined by solemn and mutual compact, he still thought 
that Bobadilla was merely a chief justice sent out to re-establish 
order and enforce the laws. He shaped his action for gaining 
time, in the hope that his vindication might come ; and in order 
to lessen the damage arising from Bobadilla's license for hunting 
gold, he publicly and privately, by word and writing, denied 
his authority to issue such licenses, and appealed to his own 
higher powers granted by the sovereigns. 

But now the truth rudely and cruelly burst upon the admiral. 
On September 7th there arrived at Bonao the royal treasurer, 
Francisco Velasquez, and a Franciscan monk, Juan de Trasierra, 
bringing with them the royal letter of May 26th, addressed to 
the admiral, announcing Bobadilla's appointment and command- 
ing his obedience to him ; and at the same time they served upon 
him a summons from Bobadilla to appear before him. The royal 
treasurer and the Franciscan monk informed the admiral of all 
that Bobadilla had done at San Domingo, The admiral could 
not believe that his sovereigns had been or could be capable of 
perpetrating such a wrong upon one who had contributed its 
greatest glory and renown to their illustrious reign ; for what 
were then, what now are the conquest of Granada and the now 
broken empire secured to their grandson, Charles V,, to the dis- 
covery of the new world ! When the admiral saw the terse 
letter of the sovereigns, bearing their signatures, so familiar to 
him for better and nobler purposes, and countersigned by the 
secretary, Miguel Perez d'Almanza, the admiral bowed his head 
in submission to his sovereigns and in shame for them, not for 
himself, " The sovereigns broke the conventions made with 
him," says the Count de Lorgues, " violated their word, and 



436 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

disposed of privileges and offices which belonged to him and his 
descendants. They condemned him without a trial, or giving 
him an opportunity of justifying himself. At first, on thinking 
of this iniquity, which would have subverted the reason of any 
other mortal, Columbus was overwhelmed with sorrow, and 
blushed with shame for the sovereigns. But if they stifled the 
sense of gratitude, forgot their promises, and falsified their 
words, the admiral respected his oath. He resolved not to fail in 
his obedience, and to give in a Christian manner the example of 
submission to even unjust authority." The letter of the sover- 
eigns, so cruelly brief, was couched in the following terms : 

To Don CJiristopJicr Columbus, Our Admiral of the Ocean Sea : 
We have ordered the commander, Francisco Bobadilla, the 
bearer of this, to say some things to you on our part. We there- 
fore pray 3'ou to give him faith and credence, and to obey him." 

Mankind are substantially the same in all ages and countries. 
It was rapidly circulated throughout Hispaniola that the admiral 
was in disgrace, and was to be sent back to Spain in chains — a 
felon's chains. The people, so lately accustomed to bow to him 
and to obey his words, now poured forth in haste to San Do- 
mingo to worship the new governor, and gain his favor. The 
most potent wa}- of doing this was to slander and accuse the 
admiral ; and as Bobadilla eagerly sought every means of sus- 
taining his illegal and lawless seizure of the government, and his 
disregard of every public and private right, he invited every 
vilifier and libeller to his presence, and a huge record was made 
of the crimes and misdeeds of Columbus and his brothers. 

Columbus, by his act of submission to his sovereigns, gave 
evidence of his personal elevation of soul ; his conduct dwarfed 
the sovereigns themselves and all their false servitors, such as 
Bobadilla, Fonseca, and his covmtless enemies. Bowing his head 
before such an injustice, he started for San Domingo, unguarded 
and even unattended save by his few servants, and stripped 
of every insignia of authority and power. On horseback, and 
with the girdle of St. Francis around his waist, the condemned 
went to meet his fate. Bobadilla, with a mockery of official 
necessity, made great show of military force, pretending that 
Columbus and his brothers intended to raise an insurrection 
and march upon San Domingo at the head of an army of 



ON COLUMBUS. 437 

caciques and their vassals and subjects, to resist the orders of 
the sovereigns. Under this empty pretext he arrested the mild 
and gentle Don Diego Columbus, placed him in chains, and 
sent him a prisoner to one of the caravels. Although he 
came to San Domingo in the humblest garb and without an 
escort, Bobadilla immediately ordered Columbus to be seized, 
loaded with chains, and imprisoned in the fort. Such an outrage 
on such a person appalled even the worst enemies of the admiral, 
and there was no one so degraded as to be willing to place the 
irons upon him, when the odious task was performed by one of 
the admiral's own domestics, of whom the venerable Las Casas 
writes : " He was an impudent and shameless cook, that riveted 
the irons on his master's feet with the same alacrity and readi- 
ness as if he were serving him some savory dish. I knew the 
wretch, and think his name was Espinosa. " 

' ' This outrage on a man so venerable and of such eminent 
merit seemed atrocious even to his enemies," writes the learned 
and just Tarducci. The Count de Lorgues also writes : " It 
was between prayer, the poetry of the Psalms, and the contem- 
plation of nature in these equinoctial regions that the disciple of 
the Cross, fully resigning himself to the divine will, came humbly 
to his enemy." And our own Irving, with noble sympathy, 
penned these eloquent and indignant words : " Columbus con- 
ducted himself with characteristic magnanimity under the injuries 
heaped upon him. There is a noble scorn which swells and 
supports the heart and silences the tongue of the truly great 
when enduring the insults of the unworthy. Columbus could 
not stoop to deprecate the arrogance of a weak and violent man 
like Bobadilla. He looked beyond this shallow agent and all his 
petty tyranny to the sovereigns who had employed him. Thus 
injustice or ingratitude alone could wound his spirit ; and he 
felt assured that when the truth came to be known, they wovdd 
blush to find how greatly they had wronged him. With this 
proud assurance he bore all present indignities in silence." * 



* Herrera, decad. i., lib. v., cap. ix. ; Las Casas, " Hist. Ind.," lib. i., cap. iSo ; 
Oviedo, " Cronica," lib. iii., cap. vi. ; the admiral's letter to the governess of Prince 
Juan ; Fernando Columbus, " Hist, del Almirante," cap. Ixxxvi. ; Navarrete, "Col. 
Dipl. Doc," cxxx. ; Irving's "Columbus," vol. ii., pp. 255-62; Dr. Barry's trans- 
lation of De Lorgues' " Life of Columbus," 408-12 ; Brownson's translation of Tar- 
ducci's " Life of Columbus," vol. ii., pp. 172-S0. 



438 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

The contrast between a great man and a despicable one was 
now constantly presented. With the populace at his back, and 
with Columbus and his brother Don Diego^ in prison and in 
chains, Bobadilla felt solicitous to get Don Bartholomew also in 
his power ; but he feared him as a ruffian fears a brave man. 
He shrank from meeting him face to face, and even from sending* 
him orders to repair to San Domingo. He knew the robust and 
generous nature of the Adelantado, his indomitable courage, his 
indignation at knavery, his resentment at outrage of every kind, 
his affection for his brother. He feared that when he heard of 
the indignities and cruelties infiicted upon the admiral and Don 
Diego, that the brave Adelantado might, at the head of his 
forces, march upon San Domingo and punish the official outlaw 
as he had merited. Bobadilla had the meanness to resort to the 
admiral and request him to write to Don Bartholomew to instruct 
him to repair peacefully to the city, and to refrain from executing 
or exasperating an)' of his prisoners. The admiral had the mag- 
nanimity to comply with his request through the desire to save 
the island from civil war, through respect for the letters of his 
sovereigns, and in the full confidence that these insults and 
wrongs would be redressed on his return to Spain and making 
known the truth. On receiving his brother's letter the x\delan- 
tado immediately laid down his command and proceeded peace- 
fully to San Domingo. Here he was also arrested by Bobadilla, 
placed in chains, and imprisoned on board the other caravel. 
The three imprisoned brothers were never visited by Bobadilla, 
nor allowed to see other visitors or each other ; they were not 
allowed to communicate with each other. While they were 
imprisoned and undergoing a mock trial with a foregone con- 
demnation, they were never informed of the charges against 
them, nor confronted with their accusers, nor allowed to defend 
themselves. The Count de Lorgues, rather sympatheticall}^ 
than historically, thus describes the treatment endured by the 
admiral in prison : " Columbus had on only the light coat he had 
on at the time of his arrest, and which he used to wear in the 
heat of the day. Bobadilla had seized on all his other clothing, 
even his sayo, or surtout. On the stone floor of his dungeon, 
with the pains of his rheumatism and the twinges of his gout, he 
had to suffer cruell}^ from cold during the nights, for he was 
almost naked — dcsnudo en cuerpo. His fare was composed of the 
most wretched stuff." 



ON COLUMBUS. 439 

Having secured his prisoners, Bobadilla then commenced the 
inquiry into the late troubles, which he was sent out primarily 
to make, and which he now made his last work instead of his 
first ; and then, too, not with the object of proceeding against 
the rebels, but rather of using the rebels against Columbus and 
his brothers. Everything was now reversed. Requelme, 
Guevara, and their late associates in rebellion were set at liberty, 
while the admiral and his brothers were in prison and in chains. 
The accused now became accusers, and the rightful accusers were 
condemned without a hearing. The judge now made comm^on 
cause with rebels, outlaws, criminals, and vagabonds of every 
description. San Domingo became the rendezvous of all the 
scoundrels of Hispaniola, and they were invited to become the 
accusers, the slanderers, and the libellers of their late governor. 
Every offence taken by these outlaws at the administration of 
justice in their regard now became a crime of the admiral, and 
it was he and not the rebels that was under investigation. Some 
accused him of insulting the honor of Castile by compelling Cas- 
tilian gentlemen to work ; others, of appropriating the pearls of 
Paria to his private use, and concealing the discovery of that 
country in order that he might first enrich himself ; others, of 
imposing oppressive labor, restricted and insufficient food, tyran- 
nical conduct, and cruel punishments on the Spaniards, while he 
waged cruel and unjust wars against the natives ; and he was 
now even charged with treason, levying war against the Spanish 
sovereigns, and meditating an alliance and union with some other 
nation. Not one of these charges had the slightest basis of 
truth ; but to the religious and devout nature of Columbus, the 
most offensive of all these odious and false accusations was that 
based upon his religiously and conscientiously having objected 
to the baptism and reception into the Church of adult Indians 
before they had been duly and sufficiently instructed in the faith. 
Upon this meritorious conduct he was accused of having pre- 
vented the conversion of the Indians, that he might reap profit 
by their enslavement and sale in the slave-marts of Spain. An- 
other charge was so contrived as to appeal to the national pride 
and prejudices of the Spanish nation and crown : his persecution 
and punishment of the late rebels were cited as acts of cruelty 
and revenge on the part of a foreigner, and as betraying a secret 
hatred of Spaniards. 



440 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

Bobadilla had a harvest of crime on the part of Columbus 
already sowed and ripened for his gathering. He was only too 
ready to condemn Columbus for every crima and offence that 
the malice of his enemies or the revenge of the offenders whom 
he had punished could make up against him. The rebels, now 
recognized as loyal and orderly subjects of the crown, were 
Bobadilla's friends, intnnates, and favored colleagues in the pre- 
concerted ruin of Columbus. A mock trial, and in many cases 
not even the forms of a trial, were sufficient to acquit and liber- 
ate the criminals and rebels of the island, and any injury done to 
the admiral merited rewards and honors at his hands. He took 
the criminal classes of Hispaniola into his confidence and favor. 
San Domingo became the rendezvous of criminals and miscreants. 
Men of truth, loyalty, and honor were silenced and intimidated. 
All these elements demanded the condemnation of Columbus. 
All kinds of lampoons, satires, scurrilous songs, libels, and slang 
resounded through the city, in the public places, and even under 
the very windows of the prison in which the admiral was incar- 
cerated. Curses on the head of the admiral and praises of Boba- 
dilla were the sounds prevailing in the common atmosphere of 
the city he had founded. The admiral wrote, " There was made 
against me a judicial inquiry into misdeeds the like of which 
was never invented in hell." Little did these unbridled conspir- 
ators, headed bv Bobadilla and assisted by Roldan, Boil, and 
Fonseca, calculate on the danger they ran, from the excess of 
their malignity, of proving the innocence of their victim. 

With an accumulated mass of testimony, too voluminous to be 
true or consistent, Bobadilla rested, assured of his victim ; he 
resolved to send Columbus and his brothers to Spain in chains, 
on board the caravels now nearly ready for sailing ; and he 
would send private letters of his own urging his condemnation 
in Spain as he had been condemned and punished in Hispaniola, 
insisting upon his guilt, and pressing for his permanent removal 
from his offices and commands. He felt assured that he had 
secured thereby his own retention in office and in power. The 
admiral himself said : " I was never able to speak with Boba- 
dilla, and no one was permitted to address me a word ; and I 
take my oath that I cannot imagine why I am held a prisoner." 
And again : " I was arrested conjointly with my two brothers, 
confined in the hold of a vessel, loaded with chains, neailv naked. 



ON COLUMBUS. 44I 

subjected to the most infamous treatment, without undergoing 
interrogatories or sentence." While Roldan, Guevara, Requelme, 
and their associates were held up as models, loaded with honors, 
favors, and privileges, in spite of their crimes, Columbus was 
arrested, condemned, and loaded with chains in spite of his inno- 
cence and his services. It is not strange, when Columbus real- 
ized the lawless and brutal conduct of Bobadilla, that he felt his 
life was in danger. The caravels being now ready for sea, 
Bobadilla, hoping to ensure no leniency for his prisoners and to 
gain favor with Fonseca, appointed to command the returning 
vessels Alonzo de Villejo, who was a protege of Fonseca's uncle 
in Spain, and while in the employment of Fonseca had been sent 
out in the service of Bobadilla, Bobadilla, a knight, a gentle- 
man by birth and education, a commander of an honorable order, 
a member of the king's household, now became the degraded 
instrument of Fonseca, whom all describe as an unworthy bishop 
and unfaithful subject of the crown. It was generally believed 
and currently reported that Bobadilla's violent conduct, cruel 
treatment and injustice toward Columbus were instigated and 
protected by Fonseca. His selection of Villejo, and his ordering 
that officer on arriving at Cadiz to deliver Columbus and his 
brothers into the hands of Fonseca, his worst enemy, are facts 
going far to prove that Bobadilla and Fonseca were directly and 
understandingly allied together in the conspiracy to ruin and 
disgrace Spain's distinguished adopted citizen. Villejo, how- 
ever, when tested, was less brutal than his employers. 

When Villejo approached the admiral to carry him to the 
ship, he saw this fallen and devoted man bowed down under the 
weight of his chains and of his wrongs. Despairing of justice 
and of his life, and sorrowing over the ingratitude of his sover- 
eigns ; grieving over the afflictions and disasters now in store 
for his sons, who could no longer expect to remain as pages of 
the Prince Don Juan, or to inherit his own titles, offices, and 
estates, he was truly a man of afflictions. Immured in a secluded 
and silent prison, the clangor of arms and the tramp of soldiers 
startled the admiral from his sad reverie ; and when he saw 
Villejo at the head of the soldiers he felt that his end was at 
hand. In anguish he asked, " Villejo, whither are you taking 
me?'' " To the ship, my lord, on which we are to embark," 
respectfully answered the young officer. " To embark !" cried 



442 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

the admiral. " Villejo, is what you tell me the real truth?" 
" On my honor, my lord, it is the truth." Las Casas has re- 
corded this colloquy, having, no doubt, obtained it from Villejo 
himself, with whom he was well acquainted, and of whom he 
said : " Alonzo de Villejo was a hidalgo of honorable character, 
and my particular friend." His humane treatment of Columbus 
showed him to have been worthy of a better service. 

Of the sailing of the vessels with the admiral and viceroy of 
the Indies, the discoverer of the new world, a prisoner and in 
chains, Mr. Irving writes : " The caravels set sail early in Octo- 
ber, bearing off Columbus shackled like the vilest of culprits, 
amid the scoffs and shouts of a miscreant rabble, who took a 
brutal joy in heaping insults on his venerable head, and sent 
curses after him from the shores of the island he had so recently 
added to the civilized world."* " The disciple of the gospel," 
writes characteristically the Count de Lorgues, " uttered no 
complaint. He remained silent, wishing to give an example of 
Christian submission to legitimate authority, even when it is de- 
ceived or abused." Mr. Prescott writes as follows of this shame- 
less treatment of Columbus : " This excess of malice served, as 
usual, however, to defeat itself. So enormous an outrage 
shocked the minds of those most prejudiced against Columbus. 
All seemed to feel it as a national dishonor that such indignities 
should be heaped on the man who, whatever might be his indis- 
cretions, had done so much for Spain and for the whole civil- 
ized world — a man who, in the honest language of an old writer, 
' had he lived in the days of ancient Greece or Rome would 
have had statues raised and temples and divine honors dedicated 
to him as to a divinity.' " Mr. Hubert Howe Bancroft says he 
was " ever loyal, high-minded, and sincere. But were all the 
calumnies true, twice told, which vile, revengeful men had 
heaped upon him, he would not have merited the treatment that 
he now received at the hand of their Majesties' agent." 

In the beginning of October, 1500, the two caravels commenced 
their homeward voyage to Spain — a voyage at which history 
blushes, humanity is shocked, and justice stands appalled. To 



* Irving's "Columbus," vol. ii., p. 267; Dr. Barry's translation of De Lorgues" 
" Life of Columbus," p. 415 ; Prescott's " Ferdinand and Isabella," vol. ii., p. 473 ; 
H. H. Bancroft's " History of Central America," vol. i., p. 181. 



ON COLUMBUS. 443 

the credit of the human race, however, it is to be related that 
scarcely had the ships sailed out of the harbor when Villejo and 
Andres Martin, the master of the ship, ' ' another good and loj'al 
Spaniard, who showed his horror of the unjust treatment the 
discoverer of the new world was subjected to," * came to the 
admiral, with every expression and demonstration of respect and 
reverence, and desired to remove his chains. ' ' No, " said Colum- 
bus ; " I am grateful for your good-will ; but I cannot consent to 
what you propose. Their Majesties have written to me to sub- 
mit to everything Bobadilla might command me in their name ; 
and it was in their name that he loaded me with these chains ; 
and I will carry them until the king and queen give orders to 
take them off. x\nd I will keep them in future as a monument 
of the recompense bestowed on my services, "f Ferdinand 
Columbus, the admiral's second son and his historian, wrote 
afterward : " And I saw them afterward always in his chamber, 
and when he came to die, he wished them buried with him 
beside his bones." :{: 

Although the weather was propitious, the voyage lasted little 
over a month, and the two high-minded officers, V^illejo and 
Martin, did all in their power to soothe the outraged feelings of 
the admiral and to relieve his sufferings. The heart and mind 
of every noble and just man, even at this distant day, overlook- 
ing every minor detail, cannot but regard this voyage as one of 
the most unfortunate and discreditable events in history, the 
indignities heaped upon Columbus as humiliations to our civili- 
zation. The two caravels, with the illustrious prisoner on board 
the Gorda, arrived at the harbor of Cadiz on November 20th, 
1500. 

The sensation caused by the arrival of Columbus in chains at 
the port of Cadiz was intense — equal in degree to the sensations 
of joy and triumph caused by his return with exultation from his 
first voyage, the discoverer of a new world, but different in 
kind : it was a feeling of indignation, of sorrow, of shame, of 
S3'mpathy, of reparation. Whatever may have been his faults or 
even his crimes — for he had been accused of almost every crime 

* Brownson's translation of Tarducci's " Columbus," vol. ii., p. 186. 
f Las Casas, "Hist. Ind.," lib. i., cap. cixxx. ; Brownson's translation of Tarducci's 
" Columbus," vol. ii.. p. 186. 

X " Hist, del Almirante," cap. Ixxxvi. 



444 OI-I^ AND NEW LIGHTS 

— nothing could justify in the estimation of public opinion such 
indignities, such wrongs to so illustrious and meritorious a per- 
sonage. From Cadiz and Seville the thrill of indignation swept 
over Spain, and from Spain it reached and was re-echoed 
throughout Europe. His enemies had overdone their cruel and 
unjust work. Had their victim been guilty, it would have 
been unnecessary to resort to such excesses. Those very ex- 
cesses of his enemies showed that they constituted a preconcerted 
conspiracy to condemn an innocent man. How could an}' one 
man have been guilty of so many and such heinous crimes ! 
A lifetime does not suffice to accomplish so much infamy. The 
very rabble that so latel}^ condemned him, without hearing him, 
now turned all their sympathies on the side of the illustrious 
victim. No government, not even the cold and selfish court of 
Ferdinand, could withstand such a reaction. The queen was 
indignant, sorrowed, and incensed. The impulses of the govern- 
ment, if impulse were possible with so calculating and selfish a 
man as Ferdinand, were swayed by the irresistible current of 
public sentiment. The generous heart of the queen inspired the 
nation with a profound sympathy for Columbus. The court was 
then sitting at Granada, and from the halls of the Alhambra the 
wail of sorrow, the stern voice of indignation, the overpowering 
current of sympathy went forth to meet the same sentiments 
surging forth from all Spain, and to greet the illustrious prisoner 
of the Gorda. Instinctive justice had already acquitted him of 
every accusation so maliciously made against him. Columbus 
was then, as in 1493, the idol of the hour. 

During the voyage Columbus had written a letter to a noble 
and generous hearted lad}^ at the court, Donna Juana de la 
Torre, formerly the governess of Prince Juan, from which we 
have already derived and quoted man}- of our statements, and 
which was a detailed and spontaneous outpouring of the senti- 
ments and sufferings of a magnanimous but wounded heart. 
While it detailed the history of the case, the events of his admin- 
istration, its vindication, the cruelties, assumptions, and injustice 
of Bobadilla, it also gave expression to the anguish of his soul, 
the sufferings he had endured in the name of his sovereigns, and 
in return for the unparalleled services he had rendered. This 
admirable and remarkable epistle was a faithful and unerring 
mirror of a suffering soul, a word picture of his indignation and 



ON COLUMBUS. . 445 

of his loyalty ; and though, in the agitation of the moment, it 
may appear in parts to be somewhat confused and disarranged, it is 
the more valuable on that account, as containing intrinsic proofs of 
its truth and honesty. The recipient of this letter, being a favor- 
ite of the queen and a member of her household, and possessing 
a just and generous soul, was not slow in placing it in the hands 
of Isabella, and thus the king also read the story of a great man's 
wrongs. This letter the admiral was permitted by Andres 
Martin, the captain of the Gorda, to send off at once to the court 
by secret express. Copious extracts have been made by the 
biographers of the admiral from this interesting letter. We shall 
confine ourselves to a few leading sentences, and first of all we 
will give the opening sentence : ' ' Although it is not usual for 
me to complain of the world, it is none the less true that its prac- 
tice of ill-treating me is very ancient ; it has attacked me in a 
thousand combats, and I have always resisted until the present 
moment, when arms and counsel have been unable to aid me, and 
it has thrown me to the bottom in an extremely cruel manner." 

His hopeful trust in Heaven is thus expressed in this letter : 
" Hope in Him who created us sustains me ; His help has been 
ever at hand. On another occasion, not long ago, being still 
more cast down, extending His divine hand. He raised me up 
and said to me, ' Man of little faith, be comforted ; what fearest 
thou, when I am with thee ? ' " 

The following passage relates to the Spanish sovereigns : " I 
was led to serve those princes by the strongest attachment, and 
have rendered them unheard-of services. God made me the 
messenger of the new sky and the new earth. . . . Every 
one was incredulous ; but God gave my lady the queen the spirit 
of understanding, and bestowed on her the necessary courage, 
and endowed her, as a beloved daughter, with the inheritance 
of this new world. . . . And now I have reached the point 
that from the most exalted to the vilest of living men there is 
none but seeks to revile me ; but the day will come when, thanks 
be to God, this will be told to the world, and my traducers will 
be held in detestation. If I had pillaged the Indies and given 
them to the Moors, I should not have been more hated in Spain." 
Further extracts from this important document will prove inter- 
esting, as giving expression in his own words against the injus- 
tice he received from the world. 



446 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

" They have tried to give me so bad a name, that if I build 
churches and hospitals, they will call them dens of robbers. 

" I could very well have prevented all that I have related that 
befell me since I came to the Indies, if I had attended solely to 
my personal interest, if that would have been becoming ; but 
I am undone because I have always maintained justice and en- 
larged their Highnesses' dominions. 

" Intrigues and calumny have done me more harm than all 
my labors have benefited me, as an example for the present and 
for future generations !" 

He then mentions the manner in which Bobadilla had manu- 
factured worthless and perjured testimony against him, and ex- 
presses his willingness to have had a just and honorable man sent 
out to investigate his administration, whereas Bobadilla was an 
implacable enemy. He indignantly refutes the trumped-up 
charge of his entertaining a design of giving over the Indies to 
some other nation ; he speaks of the unfairness of judging him 
in his new and unprecedented position by the same standards 
that would be applicable to ordinary governors in old and settled 
countries, and speaks of his dominion in a newl}^ discovered 
heathen and savage land without cities or treaties, and of his 
having changed the fortunes oC Spain from one of poverty to 
that of " the richest empire in the world." He declares his pur- 
pose of proceeding anew in the track of his first voyage, or of 
what he had written of going to Arabia Felix as far as Mecca 
and thence to the North Pole, and concludes with the following 
warning sentence : ' * God, our Lord, retains His wisdom and 
power, and punishes ingratitude in a special manner." 

It is generally regarded as an effect of the general public senti- 
ment now turned in favor of Columbus, that led Ferdinand to 
unite with the queen in making it known that Bobadilla had not 
only exceeded but had disobeyed his instructions, and that they 
had now disavowed his cruelties to the admiral. Having read 
the latter's letter to Donna Juana de la Torre, they did not wait 
for the arrival of Bobadilla's dispatches, but sent immediately 
and commanded the distinguished prisoners, Columbus and his 
brothers, to be set free, and all deference extended to them. 
They also addressed a personal letter to the admiral, full of sym- 
pathy and affection for him, expressing their indignation at the 
indignities and cruelties inflicted upon him, inviting him to court, 



ON COLUMBUS. 447 

and sending him two thousand ducats to enable him to maintain 
the dignity and style suited to his rank when he appeared at 
court. On December 20th he presented himself before the sov- 
ereigns at Granada in the brilliant and courtly dress of his ex- 
alted station, and accompanied by his brothers and a retinue cor- 
responding to his dignities and offices. Received by the king 
and queen with unbounded sympathy and honor, the queen 
moved to tears at the sight of him, the admiral was overwhelmed 
with his own feelings and sank upon his knees, bathed in tears 
and unable to utter a word. Raised up from the ground by his 
sovereigns, and reassured by their kindness and generosity, 
Columbus made an eloquent, unanswerable, and convincing de- 
fence of his conduct and administration — a vindication which 
brought forth the most earnest assurances of indemnification for 
his wrongs, and restoration of his rights, privileges, and powers. 
A few days later he had a private interview with the queen, at 
which both shed copious tears, and at which he received from 
this noble lady assurances which soothed his wounded heart and 
went far to restore his hopeful spirits. Though greatly re- 
lieved in his mind by the earnest and ample assurances of the 
sovereigns, Columbus knew well the necessity for securing his 
rights by some official and written acts. Hence he addressed a 
petition to the council a few days later, in which he recounted 
the history of his relations with Spain and its rulers, of his com- 
pact with the sovereigns, of his great discoveries and achieve- 
ments, of his administration, and of the injustice, ingratitud.e, 
and indignities received from Bobadilla. He appealed to 
the members of the council for the just performance of the 
royal agreements with him. He reminded the council of his 
having, after long delays in Spain, given the sovereigns the 
preference in the offer of the discovery and conquest of the 
Indies over other nations, just at the time when Portugal, France, 
and England had become desirous of securing him to their ser- 
vice and of realizing the glories then possessed solely by Spain ; 
and then with fervent piety he says : " Then our Saviour or- 
dained the route for me. I have placed under the power of their 
Highnesses lands larger than Africa and Europe. There is 
reason to hope that the Holy Church will prosper wonderfully 
by it. In seven years I have, by the divine will, accomplished 
this conquest. At the moment that I hoped to obtain recom- 



448 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

penses and repose, I was suddenly seized and put in irons, 
to the detriment of m}' honor, and the service of their High- 
nesses." 

It would seem scarcely necessary to defend Columbus against 
the charges made against him by Bobadilla and his minions. 
The haste, the animosity, the indecent turmoil and disorder, 
used and availed of by his enemies to suborn witnesses of no re- 
spectability or character ; the degraded type of the witnesses 
whose depositions were taken, their criminality, their hostility 
to Columbus on account of the stern justice he or his brothers 
were compelled to administer toward them ; the intrigues and 
conspiracies against him by officials in Spain co-operating with 
rebels and criminals in Hispaniola ; the prejudices which were 
fomented against him, and the shallow and reckless character 
and conduct of Bobadilla — all united in depriving his accusers and 
their accusations of every vestige of force or respectability. 
Some historians have thought that the fact of his not having been 
immediately returned to Hispaniola as viceroy, and with the 
full restoration of his rights, dignities, and powers, was evidence 
of his incapacity for the government and administration of the 
colonies he had founded, and that he was so regarded by the 
Spanish sovereigns ; but there are other explanations of this 
fact which are indisputable. While the Spanish sovereigns an- 
nulled the acts of Bobadilla, the administrative regulations of 
Columbus were re-enacted and again put in force even under 
Bobadilla's successor. They became the accepted policy of the 
Spanish rule in Hispaniola. It is also a significant fact that both 
ot the admiral's immediate successors, with the power and sup- 
port of the Spanish sovereigns at their backs, signally failed in 
their administrations, and the condition of affairs under them 
became worse than before. It was a marvel of success that 
Columbus, with his own Spanish colonists and soldiers in rebel- 
lion against his authority, instead of receiving their needed sup- 
port, and with the native tribes incited by the Spaniards them- 
selves to repeated outbreaks and revolts, and without ships or 
soldiers worthy of the name, 3^et by his prudent action main- 
tained to the last the integrity of the Spanish Empire in the new 
world. Wise and necessary concessions proved the safety of the 
empire. 

While the complaints made by Bobadilla and his confederates 



ON COLUMBUS. 449 

were almost countless, they ma}' be substantially classified, as 
the learned Tarducci has stated, under three principal heads : 
"' I. Inflexible harshness and cruelty ; 2. Attempts on the free- 
dom of the Indians ; and 3. Want of administrative knowledge 
and capacity."* While the great majority of historians have 
acquitted him of all these accusations, there seems to be a ten- 
dency on the part of a few more modern authors, such as Pres- 
cott and Hubert Howe Bancroft, perhaps following some of 
those who in the lifetime of Ferdinand and Charles V. thought 
they could only defend the conduct of the king by accusing 
Columbus, to give some justification to the charge of incapacity 
for governmental administration. Still later Justin Winsor re- 
vives the charge, but does not strengthen it. But a careful 
study of the case must convince all just and discreet judges that 
in this very particular the career of Columbus stands forth as 
pre-eminently wise and prudent, even though the overpowering 
opposition against him deprived his administration of the success 
it so well merited. To have saved the first European colony in 
America, while all was done both in Europe and America to 
destroy it, was a triumph of Columbus's administration. 

In regard to the first charge of excessive cruelty, it may be 
said that the facts here show results strongly in favor of and 
utterly vindicating the admiral. Gentleness and kindness were 
among the most marked features of his character. The measures 
of compelling the cavaliers to labor on the public works and to 
accept restricted allowances of food were so necessary for the 
preservation of their own health and lives, as well as those of 
the colonists in general, and so indispensable for the prevention 
of want and famine in the colony, that they became measures of 
mercy rather than of cruelty. Of their justice who can doubt, 
when it is considered how, in the face of common dangers, all 
men become equal, and the values of human life and health can- 
not be measured by the standards of rank or station? Privileges 
to a few, when all were equally menaced, would have been signal 
cruelties to all. Even apart from the general sufferings and 
dangers from the diseases of the climate and the want of 
food, the condition of the first colony of civilization, cast amid 
a savage race in a state of nature, would not permit of the 



Mr. Brownson's translation of Tarducci's "Life of Columbus," vol. ii., p. ic 



450 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

social and official distinctions of old, civilized communities.. 
An infant cannot endure the advanced and artificial condition 
and treatment of manhood. It need only be added that Co- 
lumbus, when privations were to be endured, was the first 
to set the example of endurance. Was it a degradation of 
his rank as admiral and viceroy that he kept the watches of the 
night on ship-board when he discovered the first land of the new 
world ? 

Other specifications under the charge of cruelty related to his 
treatment of Bernal Diaz, the instructions he sent to Pedro Mar- 
garite, and the execution of Adrian Moxica. To be sent to Spain 
for trial, as was the rebel Diaz, was surel}^ mild treatment toward 
a Spaniard guilty not only of treason against the new colony 
and his sovereigns, but of treason against civilization itself. The 
execution of Moxica was the act of Roldan, not of Columbus ; 
but what less punishment could have reached the case of a mis- 
creant waging open war in a distant Spanish colony upon his 
associates, his sovereigns, and his country ? The decree of death 
against Indians guilty of theft was but the fulfilment of the law 
of the Indian race itself, for it was with death they punished 
that crime. The very exigencies of the situation in Hispaniola 
demanded it, since stealing from the Spaniards had then become 
the prevailing occupation of the Indians. Bartholomew Colum- 
bus is universally recognized as a just man, but he was stern and 
inflexible in administering justice. While the admiral was un- 
justly censured for many of the severe acts of the Adelantado, 
it is no disparagement to the character of the latter to say that 
the admiral was characteristically mild, gentle, and even lenient 
compared to his stern but honest brother, the faithful, just, and 
honest Adelantado. 

While, under the second charge of enslaving the Indians, we 
do not purpose defending the acts of Columbus in sending Indians 
as slaves to Spain vipon the intrinsic merits of these acts, we 
know and must maintain that this was not the crime of Colum- 
bus, but that of the age and people with whom he was identified, 
and for whom he acted. Columbus never owned any Indian 
slaves himself, and while his accusers and his enemies were 
cruelly and unjustly seizing and enslaving Indians on their own 
priv^ate accounts, he was eminently known for his noble stand 
taken for restricting Indian slavery to such only as were takea 



ON COLUMBUS. 45 I, 

prisoners in war or convicted of some grave crime. The slaves 
he sent to Spain were the property of the crown, and not his 
own. While he and his sons and brothers possessed no slaves, 
which they could have readil}' acquired without limit, as 
others were doing, his arch-enemy in Spain, Fonseca himself, 
was the owner of two hundred human victims of slavery. 
One of his bitterest enemies, Ojeda, sold in the slave markets 
of Spain droves of Indian slaves, whom he had ruthlessly 
seized in his ferocious raids. Christian and civilized nations 
at that time generally, if not universally, practised the nefari- 
ous custom of reducing infidels to slaver}^ and Spain was 
conspicuous in this cruel policy ; for during the Moorish 
war thousands of Mohammedans were forced into slavery, 
and from a single city as many as eleven thousand men, 
women, and children were led into slaver3^ Of all the Spaniards 
of any note engaged in the conquest of Hispaniola, few were 
without their slaves, and even Isabella was a participator in 
human slavery ; for, as Tarducci states, " only five months before 
Christopher Columbus landed a prisoner in Spain, the queen 
signed at Seville a contract with the navigator, Rodrigo de Bas- 
tides, by which she reserved to herself the fourth part of the 
slaves he might capture on the voyage he was going to under- 
take for further discoveries in the new world ;"* and on October 
30th, 1503, she authorized the Spanish discoverers to make slaves 
of all the cannibals they might seize in the Caribbean Islands, 
with the view of their subsequent conversion ; and yet Isabella 
personally was an opponent of human slavery. Columbus 
actually prevented more Indians from being enslaved than he 
was instrumental in enslaving, under the policy and custom of 
the country and the age which he represented, and for whose 
faults he is charged. The names of Las Casas, Isabella, and 
Columbus, notwithstanding the toleration of slavery by their age 
and country, are distinguished as friends of the Indians, advocates 
of their liberty, and enemies of human slaver3\ 

It has been asserted that Columbus opposed the conversion of 
the Indians to Christianity — a charge based upon his just and 
conscientious opposition to the baptism of certain Indians. This 
accusation is refuted by the fact that his opposition in this case 



Mr. Brownson's translation of Tarducci's " Life of Columbus," vol. ii., p. 201. 



452 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

was grounded on the circumstance that the Indians themselves 
had received no instruction in the faith, were not prepared to 
receive the sacrament understandingly and with due reverence, 
and were liable again, consequently, to relapse into barbarism and 
paganism. While some of the missionaries were imprudently 
and over-zealously receiving such converts on their first and 
unstable request, Columbus, through a well-guided zeal for re- 
ligion, on the contrary, opposed these wholesale, indiscriminate, 
and premature conversions. " His manner of treating the 
Indians," says Tarducci, " was always paternal. He recognized 
in the children of the forests his brethren in Jesus Christ. He 
loved them because he had discovered them in order to bring 
them under the sweet yoke of the gospel." * 

While it has been charged that Columbus was the founder of 
the unjust system of Spanish repartimientos, and even Prescott 
and Irving state that this virtual enslavement of the Indians 
originated in the measures of Columbus growing out of his 
treaties with Roldan and the rebels, still it is demonstrable that 
it was not Columbus, but Bobadilla, that introduced the repar- 
timientos in Hispaniola and in America, and that this system was 
not originated by any measures of Columbus, did not legitimately 
flow from them, but were rather the abuse and perversion of 
them. The grant by Columbus to Roldan and the rebels of the 
privilege of receiving into their service, for the cultivation of 
their lands, certain Indians under assignment by their caciques, 
though a measure forced from him by the helpless condition 
in which he was placed, affected only the services of the 
Indians, not their persons. " What he did permit," says an 
intelligent writer, ' ' was, first, the forced labor of prisoners of 
war ; and, secondly, the commutation of tribute in gold or in 
produce into labor, to be furnished by the caciques, who were 
to order their subjects to help on the public works for one or 
two days in the week, while remaining all the time free subjects 
of their own native princes ; to pay in labor, instead of the prod- 
uce of labor, the taxes which these princes had a right to claim. 
The arrangement, as it was made and understood by Columbus, 
constituted no infringement of personal liberty. The repar- 
timientos^ on the other hand, were distributions of Indians simply 



* Dr. Barry's translation of Count de Lorgues' " Life of Columbus," p. 422. 



ON COLUMBUS. 453 

as Indians, without any pretence of either penal servitude or 
feudal service, and they were the invention not of Columbus, 
the accused, but of Bobadilla, the accuser."* Tarducci, after 
reviewing the whole subject with manifest learning and impar- 
tiality, concludes with saying : " His pretended attempts, there- 
fore, on the freedom of the Indians, considering the times and 
the opinions and customs then in vogue regarding the enslave- 
ment of the Indians, amount to nothing." f 

The third principal charge made by his enemies against Colum- 
bus, and one which, no doubt, made the most impression on the 
selfish mind of King Ferdinand, was that he possessed no capac- 
ity for administration or government. While this charge seems 
to be, in more recent times, espoused or at least countenanced 
by authors of standing and authority, my own investigation of 
the facts and circumstances has led me to the conviction, sus- 
tained by the most thorough students and investigators of the 
histor}^ of Columbus and his times, that it is as destitute of truth 
and justice as the others. The admiral himself, in his letter to 
the governess of Prince Juan, shows that the standard by 
which his administration was judged and condemned b}' his 
enemies, as well as by the court historians of his day, and by 
their followers in our day, was not a true or fair standard. The 
history of the world had never presented the case of a gov- 
ernor or viceroy placed in circumstances of so peculiar a 
character as those by which Columbus was surrounded in 
Hispaniola. Civilization and barbarism were suddenly brought 
face to face ; the law of the case must necessarily be the 
will of the governor evoked in each case by its peculiar 
circumstances ; and yet his accusers applied to him and 
judged him by the laws, customs, situation, and conditions 
then prevailing in old, peaceful, well-regulated countries, No 
one saw the difficulties of Columbus more clearly than he 
did, nor pointed them out as he did, nor with consummate wis- 
dom, prudence, and ability suggested the remedies. He never 
concealed the disasters and evils of the case, but he indicated 
to his sovereigns, in repeated communications and in the most 



* "Life of Columbus," by Rev. A. G. Knight, S. J., i86 ; Brownson's Tarducci, 
vol. ii., p. 203. 

f Brownson's Tarducci, vol. ii., p. 203. 



454 ^I-D AND NEW LIGHTS 

earnest and urgent manner, how, and how alone, they could be 
remedied. Had his recommendations been acceded to, had his 
constant demands been granted and failure had followed, even 
then the want of success could only have resulted from the oppo- 
sition, conspiracies, rebellions, and crimes of the people and 
country he was called upon to govern. Spanish administration 
in America was thwarted and defeated by the Spaniards them- 
selves in America. But his recommendations in every instance 
and in every extreme emergency were disregarded by the Span- 
ish crown. At the ver}^ moment when his administration needed 
support, he was treated with vacillation, injustice, and desertion. 
If, instead of sending out a Bobadilla and a well-equipped fleet 
at his service, the crown had sent out the same ships, soldiers, 
and supplies to Columbus, and had sustained by all their power 
his administration, he, and he alone, could have averted the dis- 
asters and misfortunes which resulted from the administrations 
of his successors, Bobadilla and Ovando. It is difficult to say 
Avhether he displayed greater wisdom and prudence in the con- 
cessions he made on some occasions, or in the firmness and 
severity he exerted at others. That he succeeded in preserving 
even his own life, and in preventing absolute collapse of the 
Spanish dominion in the new world, in the extremities to which 
he was reduced, seems to me like the achievement of moral and 
physical courage, and the triumph of will blended with manage- 
ment over countless evils and implacable enemies. The vindica- 
tion of Columbus is strengthened by the more signal failures of 
those who were sent, with every preparation and with unstinted 
means, to remedy the state of things he was accused of causing ; 
by the re-enactment by the government of the very rules and 
remedies which he had in vain endeavored to induce it to sus- 
tain in his case. A spirited paragraph from the work of Father 
Knight ably sums up the result of this accusation : " He has 
been accused of incapacity for government, but the proofs are 
not satisfactory. Success and failure are not infallible indica- 
tions of virtue ; and if they were, Columbus might bear even the 
test, for, with the same unmanageable materials, his successors 
failed more fatally than he. Bobadilla was carrying all things 
to destruction when his short reign terminated. Ovando kept 
the Spaniards in some kind of order, but it was by ruthlessly 
sacrificing the Indians. He has been blamed for choosing bad 



ON COLUMBUS. 455 

oflficers, as, lor example, Pedro Margarite and Roldan, betraying 
thereby ignorance of character. What, then, shall we say of 
Ferdinand and Isabella, who chose Aguado, Bobadilla, Ovando, 
Fonseca and Soria ? Even the most imprudent of all his public 
acts — the transportation of criminals to the colony — had large 
excuse in the crying necessities of the occasion. Few men, 
indeed, perhaps only saints, have escaped like Columbus with 
unwounded conscience from such tumultuous scenes." * 

The great enterprise of Columbus and his relations to the new 
world he had discovered were seriously affected by the action 
of the Spanish sovereigns, in authorizing various voyages of dis- 
covery to the regions embraced in that enterprise and pro- 
tected as his exclusive right to him by his chartered conven- 
tions with them. This authorization, general in its extent as 
it was dishonest in its principles, was issued by proclama- 
tion in 1495, though, in consequence of the admiral's strong pro- 
tests, not published till June 2d, 1497. The expedition of Ojeda, 
in 1499, was one of those unjustly authorized voyages. It has 
already been noticed in these pages. It was no better than 
authorized piracy both on the part of Ojeda and the crown. 
Soon afterward Pedro Alonzo Nino crossed the Atlantic, coasted 
along Cuba and Paria, and returned to Europe with immense 
stores of pearls and gold, obtained in exchange for European 
trifles. So also the Pinzons crossed the ocean in December, 
1499 ; and the squadron under Vicente Yanez Pinzon was the 
£rst to cross the equator in the western part of the Atlantic 
Ocean, and having discovered a region extending from the 
Amazon to St. Augustin in Brazil, he received a commission to 
colonize and govern that vast territory. The voyage of Diego 
de Lepe, from Palos, resulted in the discovery of a larger por- 
tion of Brazil, while in October, 1500, Rodrigo Bastides sailed 
from Cadiz, and explored the coasts of Santa Maria and the Rio 
Grande. He was forced to make for Xaragua in consequence 
of the worm-eaten condition of his ships, marched overland to 
San Domingo, was arrested by Bobadilla, and finally reached 
Spain in poverty and despair. But maritime England had 
eclipsed these early voyages made mostly but not wholly by 
the companions of Columbus on his first voyage ; for it was in 



" Life of Columbus," by Rev. Arthur George Knight, p. 187. 



45^ OLD AND NEW LRiHTS 

1494 that John and Sebastian Cabdt planted the Enghsh flag on 
the soil of North America, which they had discovered. In the 
mean time, Portugal carried her flag around Africa to .the East 
Indies, under Vasco de Gama ; and without knowing of the dis- 
coveries of Lepe and Pinzon, Cabral again discovered Brazil for 
Portugal, which, as it was east of the altered line of demarcation 
and division between Spain and Portugal, became the permanent 
conquest of the latter. It is worthy of notice that while Colum- 
bus, seeking a northwest passage to Asia, discovered America,, 
so also Cabral, seeking the East Indies, discovered Brazil. The 
map of the world was thus being drawn by heroic lines under 
the lead of one who in younger days had delineated its then 
limited and defined outlines on maps prepared by his own hand. 
Ferdinand, ever wary and watchful, thought of counteracting 
the advances of other nations in the western continent by a grand 
scheme of imperial colonization and government, embracing local 
administrations in the various countries discovered and settled, 
with a central and superior seat of government at San Domingo. 
Columbus saw in this vast plan of empire the first step toward 
realizing the boundless value and importance of his discover}' in 
fraud of his chartered privileges, and with that sagacity which 
distinguished him he demanded now, more than ever, the full 
restoration of his rights, privileges, and offices. To this act of 
justice he was entitled, because he had made the first and actual 
discovery, and all others had profited b}^ his exploits, followed 
his courses, copied his charts, and used his information. But to 
the selfish mind of Ferdinand the whole matter resolved itself 
into the question, why bestow on the admiral, or 'upon any one 
subject, even though he had given a new world to Spain, at an 
immense cost of grants and prerogatives, what so many were 
now seeking permission to avail themselves of without expense to 
the crown ? There can be but little doubt that Ferdinand de- 
termined to deprive Columbus and his descendants of all he had 
so nobly won. The temporary suspension of his concessions 
and offices by the appointment of Bobadilla afforded him the 
opportunity, and the numerous offers of experienced navigators 
to make voyages of discovery and colonization at their own ex- 
pense presented to him the sordid motive. In fact, his wily 
nature had long ago shrunk from a just recognition of the ser- 
vices of Columbus. He now disguised his purpose, and under 



ON COLUMBUS. 457 

the pretext of acting for the benefit of the admiral, in waiting for 
the subsidence of disaffection in Hispaniola, and in simply post- 
poning his return to his viceroyal government to a more pro- 
pitious moment, after the lapse of only two years, the treacherous 
king appointed Don Nicholas de Ovando, a commander in the 
Order of Alcantara, as Governor of Hispaniola, to succeed the 
unworthy and incompetent Bobadilla, both unworthy substitutes 
for the rightful governor. 

In the mean time, all public and private interests in Hispaniola 
had been hastened to ruin by the governor. Bobadilla had 
proved himself at once a weak and grasping man, seizing powers 
he was too feeble to hold, granting licenses he was unable to 
restrain, conceding to all rebels and criminals the lands he did 
not own, permitting unlimited working and robbing of the mines, 
and compelling the poor Indians to toil for gold to hand over to 
their cruel taskmasters. The only injunction he bestowed upon 
his followers was the characteristic yet unnecessary one : ' ' Make 
the most of your time ; there is no knowing how long it will last." 
The condition of the Indians became most deplorable, and 
Isabella, who indignantly asked, ' ' What power has the admiral 
to give away my vassals ?" might now well have asked her new 
governor and his minions to desist from the cruel persecution 
and relentless destruction of her subjects. Indian slavery, under 
the official name of repartiviientos, was permanently established 
by Bobadilla, and the poor natives were reduced to the condi- 
tion of beasts of burden by their remorseless tyrants. Criminals 
from Castilian prisons now assumed the state and retinues of 
grand hidalgos, while the enslaved Indians, the real owners 
of the country and its gold, fell sinking to the ground in their 
service. Indian girls, daughters or relatives of the native chiefs, 
became at once their domestic servants and concubines, with- 
out limit of number or discrimination of condition. When these 
miscreants traveled, the}- were carried on the shoulders of the 
Indians. It was a common thing to see the Indians bleeding 
from their backs and shoulders from carrying litters over the 
countr}' upon which reposed the vilest outcasts of European 
prisons and dungeons. These ruffians consumed all the fruits of 
the hard toil of the Indians, until the latter were starving: in the 
midst of their own crushing labors. Spanish pleasures and 
pastimes were acquired and enjoyed by cruelties, insults, and 



458 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

wantonness to the natives. A wail of distress went up from the 
island which was not prevented from reaching the Spanish sov- 
ereigns even by the enormous quantities of gold which Bobadilla 
poured at the foot of the throne. The tender soul of Isabella 
was melted by the agonies of her new subjects, while the avari- 
cious heart of Ferdinand was consoled by the rich and golden 
treasures received into the royal exchequer. 

Columbus had no choice but to accept the exile of two years 
from his colony and viceroyalty of Hispaniola, under the decep- 
tive promise of their restoration by the king in that time. It is 
the opinion of historians that Columbus now thoroughly dis- 
trusted Ferdinand, but still there was a ray of hope in the natural 
and genuine justice and generosity of Isabella. What could 
he do but wait ? 

The distressing accounts of Bobadilla's misconduct, received 
b}- every arrival from Hispaniola, hastened the departure of 
Ovando. This official was a man of good repute and of honor- 
able lineage, of modest demeanor, graceful manners, imposing 
appearance, temperate, even humble, and a hater of avarice, in- 
justice, and wrong, as his portrait has been drawn by his con- 
temporaries. Subsequent experiences show him to have been a 
man whose virtues were not unmixed with the gravest faults, 
for he was astute and dissembling, fond of command, and un- 
sparing to the helpless Indians, which last was evidence of a 
nature remorselessly cruel ; while toward Columbus he was 
imgenerous and even unjust, cavilling, mean, and unmanly, yet 
punctilious and ceremonious. 

The fleet that carried Ovando to his new trust was the most 
magnificent that had ever crossed the Atlantic. It consisted of 
thirty ships, five of ninety to a hundred tons burden, twenty- 
four of thirty to ninety tons, and one of twent3"-five tons. 
Twenty -five hundred persons embarked in the squadron, and 
they consisted of soldiers, officials, artisans, mechanics, a ph3'si- 
cian, a surgeon, an apothecary, seventy-three married men of 
good character and their families ; and with the fleet sailed Don 
Alonzo Maldonado, who was appointed to supersede Roldan as 
chief justice. Besides the men on board there were also liberal 
supplies of every kind, including live stock, artillery, arms, 
ammunition, and implements. SaiHng from Spain on February 
13th, 1502, the fleet reached San Domingo on April 15th, but 



ON COLUMBUS. 459 

only after encountering a terrific storm, in which one of the ships 
perished, while, in order to save the other vessels and their 
crews and passengers, much of the valuable cargoes were thrown 
overboard. As the jetson from the storm-beaten fleet was cast 
up in quantities on the coast of Spain, a rumor spread over the 
kingdom that the fleet was wrecked ; and so deeply were the 
sovereigns affected by the report and by the floating equipment 
cast upon the shore, that they shut themselves up for eight days 
in their apartments, and during that time they refused to see any 
one. 

Columbus saw with sadness the departure of this noble fleet 
commanded by another. He keenly felt the wrong thus done to 
himself. It cannot be doubted that he was entitled to its com- 
mand. It is probable that his superior seamanship might have 
carried the ships through the storm with safety and without loss 
of ship or cargoes. It is fair to judge that his administration as 
viceroy, under such favorable circumstances as surrounded 
Ovando, and with his vast and intelligent experience, would 
have proved successful and brilliant. His manly heart, with all 
his wrongs, rejoiced not at the misfortunes of others, but he 
grieved over the disaster to the fleet announced by the arrival 
of the abandoned cargoes on the shores of Spain. 

Ovando was instructed to assume immediate command on his 
arrival at Hispaniola, to send Bobadilla back to Spain, to inquire 
into the disorders of the island, punish the guilty, and to expel 
all who were unworthy to remain ; to rpvoke the licenses given 
for collecting gold, of which he was to exact one third of all that 
was already collected and one half of all future authorized col- 
lections ; to build and charter cities, to exact military obedience 
and discipline. All commerce with the colonies was restricted 
to the mother country, and all mines, precious stones, dye- 
woods, and other articles of peculiar value were reserved to the 
crown. Foreigners, especially Jews and Moors, were prohibited 
from settling in Hispaniola or making voyages to the Indies. The 
Indians and their caciques were taken under the protection of 
the sovereigns. Though the Indians were only to pay tribute 
as other Spanish subjects, and to be treated with all possible 
gentleness, it was most unfortunately provided that they were 
compellable to labor on the public works and in the mines, a 
provision which was evidently liable to abuse, and which, as 



460 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

might have been obviously anticipated, resulted in annulling- alt 
provisions in their favor, and in their ultimate and cruel exter- 
mination. In vain Avas it added that especial care should be taken 
to convert them to Christianity, and that a body of pious Fran- 
ciscans, the first formal introduction of that order into the new 
world, under the direction of the devout and venerable Antonio 
de Espinal, was sent out for that purpose ; for the unwary pro- 
vision subjecting them to be impressed for labor rendered these 
well-intended instructions nothing better practically than the 
most cruel edict for their enslavement and extermination. But 
there was another provision in these royal ordinances which 
makes humanity blush for the highest motives and purest con- 
duct of the best and noblest of our race. While the Indians were 
to be protected by delusive injunctions for their conversion and 
civilization, their exemption from slavery was to be secured by 
the importation of slaves of another race in their stead. It is 
to be regretted that the Spanish sovereigns placed their names 
to a decree which recognized the reduction to slavery of the 
negroes brought from the coasts of Africa into Spain, and author- 
ized the importation of their descendants, born in Spain of Chris- 
tian parents, into Hispaniola, and their enslavement there con- 
tinued. Such, alas ! was the first introduction of African slavery 
into America ! But even this inconsistent but well-intended 
measure did not save the Indians, while it enslaved the Afri- 
cans ! 

The interests of Columbus were not overlooked, but Ovando 
was instructed to ascertain the damages he had sustained by his 
unjust imprisonment, the suspension of his rights, and the seizure 
of his property. The crown and Bobadilla were to make resti- 
tution of all his property taken by or for them, and his brothers 
were to be indemnified for all their losses. Alonzo Sanchez de 
Carvajal was appointed by the admiral, with the royal consent, 
his factor, to receive and collect his share of the receipts from 
Hispaniola, and to secure for him all his properties and revenues. 
In future the admiral was to receive his revenues, and all arrears 
were ordered now to be paid. Ovando was surrounded with all 
the dignities and retinues appropriate to his high office, and he 
was exempted from the prohibition against wearing silks, bro- 
cades, precious stones, and other sumptuous attire, which the 
ostentatious extravagance of the Spanish nobility had caused to 



ON COLUMBUS. 46 1 

be enacted. He was allowed a retinue of seventy esquires, of 
whom ten were horsemen. 

It would be impossible to imagine a position more humiliating-, 
more unjust, or more oppressive to a high-minded man, or more 
unworthy of great and powerful sovereigns, than that in which 
Columbus was now placed — that a stranger, who had never 
contributed a thought or an act to the discovery of the new 
world, should be heralded as the governor of the new countries, 
should be sent out at the head of so splendid a fleet, should be 
loaded with honors, dignities, and privileges, and should be 
backed by the power and prestige of the Spanish crown, while 
the discoverer of the western world and its legitimate ruler, 
viceroy, and admiral should be detained at home, silenced, 
neglected, and impoverished. Had half so much been done for 
him as was now done for Ovando, at the time when his own forces 
were in rebellion against him and he was reduced to the point of 
despair, he could have brought his administration to a successful 
result, and could have prosecuted his discoveries to the conquest 
of tv\''o continents and to the dominion of both oceans. He had 
instead been left a prey to the crimes of others ; he had been 
brought back in chains from the scenes of his greatest services, 
and now he was left in disgrace and inactivity. Nine months 
were thus spent by Columbus in the thankless task of vindicating 
his honor, of restoring his fortunes, in making his appeal to 
Spain and to posterity. It was posterity alone that has heard 
his appeal. 

In the fervent mind of Columbus there was an indissoluble link 
between the discovery of the new world and the rescue and de- 
livery of the Holy Land to Christendom. The former was to 
provide the means of achieving the latter. His thoughts now 
reverted to the Holy Sepulchre, since he was now so unjustly 
debarred from continuing the discovery of the new world. The 
histories of the crusades to wrest Jerusalem and the Holy Land 
from the grasp of the Mohammedans do not exhibit to our view 
the length and depth, the elevation and breadth of the Christian 
idea which then lay at the foundation of this wonderful move- 
ment. The real contest was between all Christendom and all the 
powers of Mohammedanism, With Christendom it was more 
defensive than aggressive. Mohammedanism represented aggres- 
sion. It was in this sense and with this motive that the Sover- 



462 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

eign Pontiffs and Peter the Hermit preached the crusade. It 
was in a grand inspiration that the devout soul of Columbus 
made him the crusader-champion of Christendom. The idea 
born of the chivalrous ages survived those ages with Columbus, 
who was a historic figure standing between the Middle Ages 
and modern times, and possessing the faith of the one united 
with the enterprise of the other. Columbus assumed the aggres- 
sive ; the Holy Sepulchre was to be redeemed, and the Eastern 
world of Asia converted to the faith. The character of Colum- 
bus, with its varied virtues and conceptions, in fact, belongs to> 
all times and epochs, to all nations and continents. His mind 
would have grasped with equal intelligence the principles in- 
volved in the mediaeval struggle between Christendom and 
Mohammedanism. His sword would have been wielded with 
equal vigor whether under the Lion-hearted Richard in the 
Crusades, or under George Washington in our own War of 
Independence. 

The mind of Columbus was imbued with the faith and senti- 
ments of the Middle Ages, and no religious question of past or 
present interest ceased to arouse his deep Christian sentiments. 
As the learned Tarducci has justly remarked, it is necessary to 
divest our minds of the utilitarian education of our age, and 
identify ourselves with the sentiments of past ages, in order to 
do justice to the life and character of Columbus. It is singular 
and interesting- to recall the connection in the mmds of Christian 
doctors and scholars of the past between the expected time of 
the end of the world and the crusades and all other grand and uni- 
versal movements and enterprises. Notwithstanding the words 
of Christ, " It is not for you to know the times or the moments 
which the Father hath put in His own power," it was a subject 
that stirred Christendom — that of finding out the time of the 
destruction of the world. While Christendom awaited the 
end of the world on the approach of the year 1000, St. Augus- 
tine and Cardinal d'Ailly concurred in the opinion that the por- 
tents mentioned in Scripture as signs of the great last end 
would occur seven thousand years from the creation of the 
world. Columbus studied these and many other sacred writings 
on this subject, and advancing beyond the points reached by 
doctors and theologians, he boldly advanced the opinion, or 
rather the positive announcement, which he based upon the ap- 



ON COLUMBUS. 463 

plication of the Alphonsine tables to the theories of St. Augus- 
tine, that the world would come to an end in one hundred and 
fifty-five years. The words of Columbus were as follows : " St. 
Augustine teaches that the end of the world will be 7000 years 
from its creation. This is likewise the opinion of the holy theo- 
logians and of Cardinal Pierre d'Ailly. Your Highness is aware 
that from Adam to the birth of Christ was 5343 years and 318 
days, according to the exact calculation of King Alfonso. We 
are now in the fifteen hundred and first year since the birth of 
our Lord, and consequently the world has lasted already 684s 
years. It will, therefore, be only 155 years before the world is 
destroyed." * 

Now the connection between the end of the world and the 
crusades, or the recover}^ of the Holy Land from the Moham- 
medans, is obvious ; for before the end of the world all nations 
should be converted to Christianity, and become united under 
one shepherd in one fold. It was time, therefore, in the devout 
mind of Columbus, to prepare for these portentous events, and 
he believed himself to be the providential man that was sent to 
reveal the world to mankind and all its unknown nations, tribes, 
and peoples. The great monster of Mohammedanism was to be 
destroyed, the East and the West were to be brought together, 
and the recovery of Jerusalem and the Holy Land was the door 
which would open the way to the reunion of all the world in the 
one fold of Christ. " The wealth of the Indies," writes Father 
Knight, " to follow his train of thought, would ensure the re- 
covery of the Holy Sepulchre ; the recovery of the Hoi}' Sepul- 
chre would increase charity and send evangelists to the Indies. 
Distant nations must be added to the fold, and Christians must 
be free once more to worship Christ at Bethlehem and Calvary. 
The idea which filled the mind and soul of Columbus was to 
make a highway round the earth, and bring the nations in willing 
homage to the feet of Jesus Christ, reigning once more in Jeru- 
salem of the Christians." f "In this time of evil, his vow to fur- 
nish within seven years from the time of his discover)'," writes 
Mr. Irving, " fifty thousand foot soldiers and five thousand horse, 
for the recovery of the Holy Sepulchre, recurred to his memory 



* Mr. Brownson's translation of Tarducci's " Life of Columbus," vol. ii., p. 212. 
J- " Life of Christopher Columbus," by Rev. A. G. Knight, S. J., p. 190. 



464 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

with peculiar force. The time had elapsed, but the vow re- 
mained unfulfilled, and the means to perform it had failed him." 

These ideas, so repeatedly and solemnly and artlessly ex- 
pressed by a man of the fervent piety of Columbus, show how 
truly his discovery arose from the working of his own mind, and 
not from information furnished by others. He considered it a 
divine intimation, a light from Heaven, and a fulfilment of what 
had been foretold by our Saviour and the prophets. Still he re- 
garded it but as a minor event, preparatory to the great enter- 
prise, the recovery of the Holy Sepulchre. He pronounced it a 
miracle effected by Heaven to animate himself and others to 
that holy undertaking ; and he assured the sovereigns that if 
they had faith in his present as in his former proposition, they 
would assuredly be rewarded with equally triumphant suc- 
cess." * The Count de Lorgues, on the same subject, in his 
usual extravagant strain writes : " Human glory was incapable 
of remunerating him. It was from the Most High that he ex- 
pected a recompense. Columbus hoped that, as a crowning of 
his favors, the Divine Majesty designed to reserve for him the 
deliverance of the Holy Sepulchre, hitherto refused to the efforts 
of the Crusaders." f And again the same enthusiastic author : 
" Sometimes in the intervals of his researches, the contemplator 
of the world, electrified with the poetry of Israel and with the 
sublime h3'^mns of the Church, tried also to render into verse the 
emotions prompted by his piety. A poet in sentiment, he was 
still more so in expression, even in the language of his adopted 
country. . . . The religious stanzas of Columbus unhappily 
are lost." :{; 

Columbus was not alone in his conviction that he was the 
chosen one of Heaven for the spread of the gospel, in which 
great mission the recovery of the Holy Sepulchre and the Holy 
Land was an early step. The learned and gifted Jayme Ferrer, 
a famous scientist of that day, expressed the sentiments of many 
learned and pious people when he thus addressed Isabella con- 
cerning Columbus in 1495 : " I believe that in its deep, mysteri- 
ous designs divine Providence selected him as its agent in this 



* Irving's " Columbus," vol. ii., p. 295. 

f Dr. Barry's translation of De Lorgues' " Life of Columbus," p. 425. 

t Id., p. 426. 



ON COLUMBUS. 465 

work, which I look upon as the introduction and preparation for 
things which the same divine Providence has determined to make 
known for its own glory and the salvation and happiness of the 
world." And afterward, writing to the admiral, he says: "I 
behold in this a great mystery ; the divine and infallible Provi- 
dence sent the great Thomas from the West to the East to preach 
our holy Catholic faith in the Indies, and has sent you, sefior, by 
the opposite way, from the East to the West, till, by God's will, 
you reached the utmost limits of Upper India, in order that the 
inhabitants might learn those truths which their progenitors 
cared not to receive from the preaching of St. Thomas. . . . 
In your mission, sefior, you seem an apostle, a messenger of 
God, to spread His name in unknown lands." * Such were the 
views of learned and good men in a less sceptical age than ours. 
Devoting himself to this great purpose, Columbus employed 
all his leisure moments in preparing arguments and proofs to 
sustain his proposals to the sovereigns to undertake the rescue 
of the Holy Sepulchre. Although he had prepared calculations 
for furnishing an army of one hundred thousand men for this 
crusade, at a time when he scarcely possessed the means of pur- 
chasing for himself a coat, he now realized his present poverty, 
and appealed to the sovereigns to undertake the work. His 
studious labors were collected in a splendid manuscript work, 
which he entitled " A Collection of Prophecies on the Recovery of 
Jerusalem and the Discovery of the Indies," which he addressed to 
Ferdinand and Isabella, When submitted by him, before presen- 
tation to the sovereigns, to Father Gaspard Gorricio, a learned 
Carthusian monk, for his amendment and addition, the father could 
find little to add, expressing at the same time his wonder and ad- 
miration at its extraordinary learning, research, and cogent reason- 
ing. This remarkable work, composed of collections and extracts 
from the prophecies relating to his subject, poetical stanzas by 
the author, quotations and references from the works of St. 
Augustine, St. Thomas, St. Isidore, and Gerson, has, with the 
exception of some fragments and allusions to it in the admiral's 
other writings, wholly perished. It was presented to the Span- 
ish sovereigns accompanied by a no less interesting and remark- 



* " Col. Diplo. Doc," Ixviii. ; Mr. Brovvnson's translation of Tarducci's " Life of 
Columbus," vol. ii., p. 217. 



466 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

able letter addressed bj the admiral to them, in which he ear- 
nestl}^ and enthusiastically appealed to them not to reject his 
proposals, and assuring them of the same ultimate success that 
had attested the truth and practicability of his proposals for the 
discovery of the new world. 

While preparing this unique and characteristic volume, Colum- 
bus was living in retirement and poverty, unable to appear in 
public for want of means to sustain his rank, scarcely able to 
provide a scanty livelihood or clothing, and, to his own sincere 
regret and mortification, unable to contribute to the Church and 
to the expenses of divine worship a blanca, smallest of Span- 
ish coins. Not having received his just remittances from His- 
paniola, he was without money or credit. It is well known that 
in his days of prosperity his charities had been unbounded. Not 
only had he cared for his aged and impoverished father at Genoa, 
but he cared for the household of Donna Beatrix Enriquez at 
Cordova, had assisted his brothers, and, as the Count de Lorgues 
suggests, not from historical data, but from the abundance of his 
admiration, he must have given generously to hospitals and 
other charities, and discharged in the most substantial manner 
the debt of gratitude he always entertained toward the Francis- 
can convent of La Rabida. Reduced to the necessity of living 
in an inn, even there he was frequently without the means of 
paying his board. Neglected by the Spanish sovereigns, when 
he " had given to Castile lands a hundred times larger than her- 
self," he, at this sublime period of his life, " was without a foot 
of earth, a garden to walk in, or a roof to shelter his head." '" 
In the midst of such humiliations and sufferings the enthusiastic 
and mediaeval mind of Columbus soared in solemn thought toward 
Heaven. The preparation of this earth for the cohiing of the 
Saviour to judge mankind by opening the way to the conversion 
of all nations to the faith, the ardent appeal to the most dev^out 
sentiments of the sovereigns and peoples of his age, the sacred 
3^et almost mystic learning with which he enforced his arguments 
and conclusions, the elevation of mind with which he sought the 
sublime aims within the grasp of man, and the perfect earnest- 
ness and simple good faith in which he presented the predestined 
and glorious mission which he felt to be his office divinely in- 



* Dr. Barry's translation of Count de Lorgues' "Life of Columbus," p. 432. 



ON COLUMBUS. 46/ 

spired and ordained of Heaven, throw light upon the character 
and life of the man. The spirit of the crusades had not expired 
on earth ; in fact, Columbus himself had been a soldier fighting 
in the recent successful crusade of Christianity against Moham- 
medanism in Spain. A Spanish duke had but lately accomplished 
an expedition into Barbary against the infidels ; Spanish con- 
quests were looking eastwardly, and the proposals of Columbus 
were not out of unison with the religious and military spirit of 
the times, nor of the court to which they were addressed. Even 
now the souls of Christians turn ardently toward the holy city 
of Jerusalem ; pilgrimages to the Holy Land are still the signifi- 
cant expressions of Christian piety ; while at the approaching 
quadro-centennial celebration of the great Columbian discovery 
there will be present American Christians who have visited Jeru- 
salem as pilgrims in the same religious sentiments which affected 
the soul of Columbus. In February the admiral addressed a 
strong letter to Pope Alexander VI., presenting his plans for the 
recovery of the Holy Sepulchre and for spreading the gospel 
amonff all the heathen nations of the earth. He renewed his 
promise of visiting the Sovereign Pontiff in person. 

But the currents of more modern thought and enterprise had 
set in ; a new world had been discovered but onl}' partially re- 
vealed. Was it x\sia, or a new hemisphere, with its continents ? 
Portugal had reached Asia by the South African route, and had 
discovered Brazil. Spain and Portugal were looking with mun- 
dane ambition to the new world rather than with religious zeal 
to the Orient. Columbus, more than any other person, knew 
the importance and grandeur of his achievement. Having ob- 
served the directions of the coasts of Paria and Cuba, tending 
toward a central region, he believed that the currents of the 
Caribbean Sea could have no other outlet than between the main- 
lands of Paria and Cuba at the point of their nearest approach, 
and he located the conjectured strait near what we now know 
as the Isthmus of Darien. He proposed now, with an enthusiasm 
equal to that which inspired him before the Council of Salamanca, 
to the sovereigns to make another and fourth voyage for the dis- 
covery of this great passage, by which he would unite the new 
world and the old by a navigable strait, and bring the riches of 
both within reach of Europe. Success would crown his career 
as discoverer and add further splendor to his last days. 



468 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

Ferdinand and Isabella overcame all the objections raised 
against this proposal of the admiral. Wh)' should they wait for 
a report from Hispaniola as to his administration there, when he 
had already discovered a new world, and proposed to discover 
what might prove to be another, perhaps of greater vastness, 
wealth, and grandeur ? While the admiral's plans for the crusade 
to the Holy Land produced the partial result of leading Ferdi- 
nand to gain, by negotiation with the Grand Soldan of Egypt, 
the preservation of the Holy Sepulchre and the protection of 
Christian pilgrimages, the admiral was invited to Seville in the 
fall of 1 501 to arrange with the sovereigns the details of his 
fourth voyage of discovery. 

Columbus, in the preparations for his fourth and last voyage 
to the Indies, encountered from Fonseca delays and provocations 
similar to those he had already suffered ; yet it is stated that 
when it became known at Seville that the sovereigns were anx- 
ious to get rid of him, by engaging his thoughts in a new ex- 
pedition, the preparations were hastened by Fonseca and his 
associates. His request for permission to land at Hispaniola was 
declined on the outward voyage, on account of the still unsettled 
condition of affairs, and chiefly as Ovando had then just arrived 
and Bobadilla was about to return home ; but permission was 
given for his touching at San Domingo on his return. Permis- 
sion was given for his taking with him his brother, the Adelan- 
tado, and his son Fernando, then a lad of fourteen 3'ears, while 
his son Diego was to remain in Spain to attend to his business 
interests. Two or three persons conversant with Arabic were 
selected to go on this expedition, in the expectation that now at 
least the realms of the Grand Khan would be reached. A letter 
was addressed to Columbus by the sovereigns, assuring him 
most solemnly that their treaties with him would be faithfully 
fulfilled by them and their successors, not only to him, but also 
to his sons, and expressing a disposition to bestow still further 
honors and rewards upon him, his brothers, and his children, 
and also expressing the hope that his mind would be at peace 
for the prosecution of his grand enterprise, as well as in relation 
to his rights and interests at home. 

While the mind of Columbus was greatly relieved by this as- 
surance, the last letter he received from Ferdinand and Isabella, 
which in its terms seemed both ample and generous, his sad ex- 



ON COLUMBUS. 469 

periences with princes led his practical and sagacious mind to 
take measures for preserving- his fame, securing his rights, and 
perpetuating his titles, offices, and jurisdictions to his sons and 
descendants. He accordingly caused copies of all the royal 
letters, grants, and capitulations issued to him as admiral, vice- 
roy, and governor to be prepared and certified by the alcaldes 
of Seville, and also letters of his own containing vindications of 
his administration in Hispaniola, and these documents in dupli- 
cates were sent by different messengers to his friend, Dr. Nicolo 
Oderigo, formerly ambassador from Genoa to the Spanish court, 
with the request to preserve them and to acquaint his son Diego 
of their existence and deposit. Another copy he left with his 
friends, the Franciscans in Spain, and another with the nBonks 
of St. Jerome. It was thus with a prophetic forethought he 
made his appeal to the world and to posterity for that justice 
which was then denied him by the king and nation that had 
reaped the whole honor and glory of his achievements. It was 
an appeal from King Ferdinand's subsequent, but then appre- 
hended injustice, to the public opinion of the world. Four cen- 
turies have recorded their verdict in favor of Columbus. 

The fleet destined for such services contrasted strangely with 
that which had just carried out a mere official, whose chief office 
was to supersede another similar official, who, like himself, had 
been clothed with authority. It consisted of four caravels, 
one of fifty tons, the largest of seventy tons, and the personnel 
consisted of only one hundred and fifty men. It was destined to 
solve the problem of a northwest passage to Asia, now conjec- 
tured and believed to be a central passage, to elucidate the prob- 
lem of the circumnavigation of the earth, and to unfold to men 
the geography of the planet. Much of this programme was 
actually accomplished ; under more favorable support the prob- 
lems of geography would have been solved. The admiral was 
accompanied by his ever-faithful brother, Don Bartholomew, 
and by his younger son, Don Fernando, whose society greatly 
consoled the venerable discoverer in his sorrows and adversities. 
The fleet sailed from the port of Cadiz on May 9th, 1502. 

" What can we not endure. 
When pains are lessen 'd by the hope of cure ?" 

— NaBB'S " MiCROCOSMUS." 

Don Bartholomew Columbus had seen so much treachery 



470 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

on the part of Spaniards, and so much selfish ingratitude 
on the part of the king, such lack of support from the 
mother country to her champions and heralds in the new world, 
that he desired to abandon all further participation in the prose- 
cution of western discoveries and explorations ; but at the re- 
quest of his brother he nobly sacrificed every plan and wish of 
his own, and devoted himself to the new enterprise. The ad- 
miral's younger brother, always so gentle and so pious, now 
abandoned the world, and sought retirement and meditation in 
the sacred ministry. To young Fernando Columbus the queen 
gave a commission in the Spanish navy. 

Columbus, now advanced in years, and weakened by severe 
mental and physical strain and by his increasing infirmities, 
seemed to contemplate constantly eternity, while yet making a 
last struggle to reveal the geography of the globe. The ingrati- 
tude he had experienced in Spain, his adopted country, had now 
an interesting effect in reviving and renewing the love of his 
native country, the home of his father and of his ancestors. His 
characteristic generosity was now again conspicuous in this criti- 
cal epoch in his life. With patriotic love for his native country, 
he made a munificent donation to the Bank of St. George, at 
Genoa, for the rehef of the poor of his native city. The letter 
announcing this gift, which now the revival of his hopes for the 
restoration of his rights and revenues and their transmission to 
his family gave him every prospect of making good, is so exact 
a mirror of his noble and generous soul, that I will give it to the 
reader. 

" To the Most Noble Lords of the Most Magnificent Office of St. 
George : 

" Most Noble Lords : Although in body far distant, in heart 
I am always near you. God our Lord has done me the greatest 
favor of any man since David. 

' ' The facts of my enterprise, alread}^ widely published, would 
astonish you much more if you knew them all, and the govern- 
ment had not cautiously concealed them. I return again to the 
Indies, in the name of the Most Holy Trinity ; but as I am 
mortal, and may leave this world on the way, I have disposed by 
will that my son, Don Diego, shall remit to you every year, in 
perpetuity, the tenth part of my revenues, to be used in reduc- 



ON COLUMBUS. 47 1 

ing the duties on corn, wine, and other victuals consumed in 
your city. If this tenth will accomplish something, accept it ; 
if not, accept my good will. 

" I recommend my son to your favor. Messer Nicolo Oderigo 
knows much about me ; he is the bearer also of a faithful copy 
of ni}^ privileges and rights, to be deposited in some safe place, 
after showing it to your lordships at your convenience. 

" The king and queen, m)' sovereigns, love and honor me 
more than ever. 

" May the Holy Triad preserve your noble persons, and 
bestow ever greater prosperity on the most magnificent Office 
of St. George. 

" Done at Seville, on the 2nd of April, 1502. 

" The Admiral-Major of the Ocean Sea, and Vicero)^ and 
Governor-General of the Islands and Mainland of Asia and India, 
for the King and Queen, my sovereigns, and their Captain-Gen- 
eral of the Sea, and their Councillor. 

• S • 
. S . A . S . 
X. M. Y. 
.Xpo FERENS. 

As all biographers of Columbus have given an explanation of 
this unique and interesting signature, so characteristic of the 
age to which he belonged and of the religion which inspired 
him with so many high thoughts and aspirations, my readers 
will find the explanation attractive and entertaining. 

It has already been mentioned that the name of Christopher, 
which is composed of two Latin words, Christ us and Ferens, sig- 
nifies the Christ-bearer, and was devoutly interpreted by the 
admiral himself as prophetic of his mission in carrying the re- 
ligion of Christ to unknown lands and nations. Among the an- 
cient traditions of the Church is the legend of St. Christopher. 
The name Christopher seems to have been an emblematic name 
given to St. Jerom; who was martyred under the Emperor 
Decius, in Lycia ; and while his festival was observed in the 
Western calendars on July 25th, it was kept by the Greek Chris- 
tians and other Orientals on May 9th. It is stated by the learned 
Alban Butler that, according to the Mosarabic Breviary attributed 
to St. Isidore, the martyr's relics were translated to Toledo, thence 



472 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

into France, and are now enshrined at St. Denys, near Paris. 
Father Knight, the learned Jesuit, seems to think there were two 
St. Christophers, the Syrian and the Italian, although he re- 
gards the latter as mythical, or a creation of art. Dr. Butler 
mentions but one, and of him he relates the entire legend. St. 
Christopher is represented in the window-paintings of the cathe- 
drals of the West as wading through the sea of tribulations, in 
allusion to his many struggles and sufferings by which he 
attained his exalted place in heaven. In this fearful passage, 
ending in his martyrdom, he bore the Saviour in his heart, and 
thus allegorically is represented as crossing a material sea, 
and carrying Christ upon his shoulders. This office of Christ- 
bearer led to his being always represented as of immense stature, 
an emblem of the strength required to carry in safety his precious 
burden. Dr. Butler, following Baronius, claims this representa- 
tion of the saint as purely allegorical, and originating in the 
scenes depicted in the Gothic cathedrals, and cites the beautiful 
epigram of Vida in confirmation : * 

" Christophore, infixum quod eum usque in corde gerebas, 
Pictores Christum dant tibi ferre humeris," etc. 

— Vida, hym. 26, t. 2, p. 150. 

" To Christopher, on shoulders strong, 
To bear the Christ o'er seas along, 

By artists' hands was given ; 
Just as the mystic Lamb he bore, 
Within his gentle heart t' adore. 

O'er seas of blood — to Heaven !" 

The mystic letters in Columbus' signature are not unfamiliar to 
ecclesiastical scholars, and are, in fact, somewhat in use with 
members of religious communities in our own day and country. 
The admiral's son, Fernando, who wrote his father's life, informs 
us that whenever Columbus commenced to write he took up 
the pen with the devout prayer in Latin, " Jesus cum Maria sit 
nobis in via' (Jesus, with Mary, be with us on our way). Even 
now the same devout custom prevails among religious persons ; 
and my own experience, like that of the learned Tarducci, has 
frequently brought to me letters having written at the top of 
the sheet the names in Latin, Jesus, Maria, Joseph, or J. M. J.— 
more frequently the initials. In interpreting the signature of 

* Pimius, the BoUandists, t. 6, p. 125. 



ON COLUMBUS. 473 

Columbus, the S. at the top is construed as standing for Salva 
me (save me) or Salve (hail). The second line, composed of the 
letters S. A. S., while Tarducci says they " have never been 
divined," are to be read, according to Spotorno, who is also 
concurred in by Tarducci, in connection with the letters of the 
third hne, X. M. Y., the initial letters of the intended words 
being in the third line and the final letters of the same words 
being in the second line. Thus the third and second lines, taken 
together, signify jfesjis, Mary, Joseph. The last line is composed 
of the Greek word XPO (for Christo, Christ) and the Latin word 
FERENS (carrying), and simply signifies Christopher, or Christ- 
bearer ; and from the significant manner in which it is formed is 
evidently intended by the admiral to refer to hig great mission, 
or apostolate, for carrying the faith of Christ to heathen nations. 
The first three lines of the signature, an interpretation in which 
Tarducci and other writers concur, may therefore be rendered 
thus : 

• S • {Salve.) 

S A. S . 5 



X ^ M ^ Y ^ 



.^ 



Other signatures of Columbus, such as that to his will, the 
instrument by which he created the entail of his estates, con- 
tained the same letters, but was signed EL ALMIRANTE, in- 
stead of XPO FERENS. It is a common practice in Spanish 
countries still to use the ejaculation in Spanish, " Jesus, Maria y 
Jose." While the North American Review for April, 1827, sug- 
gests the substitution of Jesus for Joseph at the last letter of the 
third line of the signature, the name of Joseph is the necessary 
complement of the three sacred names in general use.* 

The work of the Count de Lorgues dwells at length on the 
patron saint of Columbus. He represents him as a pagan, whose 
name was Opherus, a Syrian, and of gigantic stature. Having 
become a Christian on witnessing a miracle, he took the name 
of Christopher, or Christ-bearer. It was from his name rather 

* Irving's " Columbus," vol. iii., pp. 452, 453 ; Mr. Brownson's translation of Tar- 
ducci's " Life of Columbus," vol. ii., p. 226 ; Count de Lorgues' " Life of Columbus/' 
Dr. Barry's translation, pp. 579-85. 



474 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS. 

than from any mission or apostolate or labors that he performed 
that he is represented as bearing Christ upon his shoulders. In 
the application of the symbols to Columbus, they, as well as the 
name itself, are regarded as prophetic of the admiral's mission 
to discover heathen lands and nations, and to open the way for 
their receiving Christ and His religion, which he is credited 
with carrying to them. The aptness of the application is most 
striking and engaging. The profoundly religious character of 
Columbus, and his extraordinary zeal for the extension of the 
gospel of Christ, render the application most fitting and appro- 
priate. 

The Count de Lorgues interprets the admiral's signature differ- 
ently somewhat from the above rendition, and as follows : Ser- 
vus SUPPLEX Altissimi Salvatoris. — Christus, Maria, 
Joseph, — Christo Ferens. The translation in English runs 
thus : The Suppliant Servant of the Most High Saviour. — 
Jesus, Mary, Joseph.— Christ-bearer.* 



Barry's translation of De Lorgues' " Columbus," p. 357. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

" Press on ! for it is godlike to unloose 
The spirit, and forget yourself in thought ; 
Bending a pinion for the deeper sky, 
And in the very fetters of your flesh, 
Mating with the pure essences of heaven ! 
Press on ! for in the grave there is no work, 
And no device. Press on ! while yet you may !" 

— Willis's " Poems." 

Sustained by the strong arm of his faithful brother, Don 
Bartholomew, and by the amiable and affectionate companion- 
ship of his second son, Don Fernando, then scarcely fourteen 
years old, the admiral undertook this his fourth and important 
expedition, with the brave spirit and enduring cheerfulness of 
his younger days. His health, however, was greatly impaired, 
and he felt the inroads upon his naturally robust constitution made 
by the labors, exposures, disappointments, watchings, and respon- 
sibilities of his previous expeditions, and still more by the wrongs, 
injustice, and humiliations he had received ; but his mind was 
clear, strong, and buoyant, and his spirit was ardent, energetic, 
and robust. Though he was not far from his sixtieth year, he 
undertook this arduous and adventurous voyage with an eye 
bright with enthusiasm, with a courage sustained by the grandeur 
■of his conceptions and aspirations, and with the elasticity of charac- 
ter which had distinguished him in the prime of life. He always 
esteemed this expedition as one of the most important and 
momentous of his career. 

Just as the squadron was about to sail from Cadiz, news arrived 
that the Portuguese fortress of Arzilla, on the coast of Morocco, 
was blockaded by the Moorish fleet. In accordance with the 
chivalrous customs of the age, by the instructions of the gov- 
ernment, and with his own instincts as Grand Admiral of Castile, 
he sailed to the relief of the Christian garrison then threatened 
by the Mohammedans. Finding on his arrival that the siege 



476 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

was raised, and that the governor had received a wound in its 
gallant defence, he sent his brother, the Adelantado, and his 
son, Fernando, and the captains of the caravels on shore to visit 
the governor, to express his sympathy and friendship, and to 
tender the services of the Spanish squadron. This act of courtesy 
was gratefully received, and a deputation of Portuguese cavaliers 
was sent in return to visit the admiral and express the thanks of 
the governor of the fortress. Among the visitors were relatives 
of the admiral's first wife. Donna Felippa Moniz. After ex- 
changing compliments, the admiral again sailed, touched at the 
Grand Canary on May 25th, and after a favorable voyage the 
fleet arrived on June 15th at Mantinino, one of the Caribbean 
Islands. 

Necessity now compelled Columbus, contrary to his orders 
from the government, to sail for San Domingo, on account of 
the principal vessel's inability to carry her sails, thus constantly 
embarrassing and delaying the squadron. His plan had been to 
sail directly for Jamaica, and thence toward the continent near 
Paria, in search of the passage, which he thought he would dis- 
cover farther to the west by following the coasts in that direc- 
tion, and thus achieve the great solution of the connection or 
union between the two oceans. His reason for touching at San 
Domingo was for the purpose of exchanging his faulty vessel for 
one of the ships which had recently carried Ovando to His- 
paniola, or to purchase there another ship. Although the reasons 
for the orders forbidding his going to San Domingo were pru- 
dently and wisely based upon the risk and imprudence of his 
making his appearance there in the disordered condition of 
affairs, and just as Ovando had arrived and Bobadilla was about 
to depart, the admiral's necessity and the interests of the public 
service, unforeseen as they were by the government, scarcely 
left him any other alternative. 

Ovando having arrived at San Domingo on April 15th, he was 
received by Bobadilla and the inhabitants on the shore with all 
the ceremony of Spanish punctilio. Escorted to the fortress, 
the usual official oaths were taken, and the new governor entered 
upon his duties with apparently prudent energy and cool delib- 
eration. Bobadilla's downfall had taught him at least the neces- 
sity of treating others with courtesy and respect, and now, too 
late, he saw his past folly. Neglected by all, deserted even by 



ON COLUMBUS. 477 

the people to whom he had given everything, and whose pas- 
sions he had favored and indulged, he was now of not sufficient 
importance to challenge attention. The conduct of Roldan and 
his late confederates in rebellion was rigidly investigated by 
Ovando, and the chief rebel himself and most of the others were 
now commanded to return to Spain to answer for their conduct. 
It is said that they confidently expected when at home to gain 
immunity for their crimes and outrages under the patronage of 
Fonseca, and by the influence of their friends. It was a shame- 
ful sight to behold these outlaws, the unworthy representatives 
of civilization and Christianity, confidently returning to Spain 
loaded with quantities of gold, and relying upon this ill-gotten 
treasure for their pardon or escape from a just punishment. 
Bobadilla, though more from neglect or indifference escaping 
any formal accusations or trial, and sent back to Spain more to 
get rid of him than otherwise, trusted confidently to the magic 
power of gold. He was to embark in the principal ship of the 
returning fleet. He placed on board a huge quantity of gold, 
consisting of the revenues he had collected in gold for the crown 
by the hard labors of the natives, as well as his own acquisitions. 
Among the golden treasures placed on the ship was a celebrated 
treasure, a solid mass of virgin gold, which an Indian girl had 
accidentally found in the mines while carelessly moving her rake 
to and fro ; and as it was found on the estates of Francisco de 
Garay and Miguel Diaz, a suitable compensation was made to 
them in order to secure it for the king. It was said to have 
weighed thirty-six hundred castellanos and to be worth 1,350,000 
maravedis, or nearly $2080 of our mone3^ The finding of this 
valuable deposit was celebrated at San Domingo in a manner 
peculiar to the times and situation. A grand dinner was given 
in honor of the treasure, at which the mass of gold itself was 
quaintly and whimsically used as a platter for serving a roasted 
pig, and it was jocosely remarked by the guests that never had 
Castilian king eaten from so valuable a service. While Bishop 
Las Casas slyly questions whether the poor Indian girl received 
any part of the treasure or its price, Tarducci wittily remarks 
that history has not recorded her receiving a taste of the pig. 

Roldan and his chief confederates in rebellion embarked on the 
same ship with Bobadilla, and each of these was to carry home 
immense treasures in gold, and these, together with the royal 



478 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

portions, gave to the flagship the richest cargo of gold which 
had ever been collected. It is also to be related that on this 
vessel, and in such unworthy company, was placed the sad and 
unfortunate native chief Guarionex, loaded with chains, which 
should have been more appropriately worn by his Spanish 
masters on board. On another vessel was embarked the ad- 
miral's representative, Alonzo Sanchez de Carvajal, who had 
recovered from Bobadilla a portion of the admiral's revenues and 
secured other portions of it, so that the restored property 
amounted to four thousand pieces of gold. 

It was at this juncture of readiness to sail that the little fleet 
of Columbus appeared off San Domingo on June 29th, The 
admiral, wMth that close and unequalled observation and knowl- 
edge of natural phenomena for which he was pre-eminently dis- 
tinguished, had detected an approaching storm when no one else 
could see the slightest sign of one. He now sent on shore Pedro 
di Tereros, one of his captains, to request permission to ex- 
change for a good ship in port his own ship, which was unfit for 
the service, or to purchase one, and asking permission to take 
shelter with his ships in the harbor from the violent hurricane 
he saw approaching. While it was known that Columbus had 
instructions not to stop at San Domingo, and probably Ovando 
had been so advised, and possibly had received instructions not 
to admit him to enter in case he came there — an arrangement, no 
doubt, rendered advisable by the distracted state of the colony 
and the presence there of so many of his enemies — yet the stress 
imder which Columbus found himself, in order to save the ships 
of the government in his fleet, and to promote the public inter- 
ests in the prosecution of the voyage undertaken for the glory 
and profit of Spain, fully justifies his request. A stranger, even 
a public enemy would have been permitted to take shelter from 
a storm ; but even this courtesy of a common humanity was denied 
to Columbus. It is alleged, in extenuation of Ovando's refusal, 
that he might have justly regarded the reasons assigned by 
Columbus for entering the port as mere pretexts and ridiculous 
inventions ; because, as he might have asked, how could a ship 
only two months at sea be now unseaworth}' ? and how could a 
storm be given as a reason when no one could detect the slight- 
est sign of one approaching ? These excuses fell to the ground 
soon afterward by the established facts in each case ; and the 



ON COLUMBUS. 479 

well-known reputation of Columbus as a navigator, his acknowl- 
edged truthfulness of character, and his exalted personal and 
official position, all entitled him to the credit of good faith. It 
was but natural that the admiral should feel deeply wounded 
and insulted at this refusal. In his letter soon afterward written 
to the sovereigns, he thus expresses himself : " Who, not even 
excepting Job, would not have died of despair to see, when my 
safety and that of my son, my brother, and my other friends, 
was at stake, under these circumstances access forbidden me to 
that land and shelter in that port which, by the will of God and 
at the price of my blood, I had won for Spain." 

Even under such an indignity Columbus's magnanimity pre- 
vailed over his anger, and he immediately sent the officer, 
Tereros, back to beseech the governor at least not to permit the 
fleet to depart for Spain or go to sea, as a fearful storm was 
surely approaching, and almost certain destruction would await 
the ships exposed to the coming hurricane. But as no other 
person or seaman or pilot could observe the slightest indications 
of a storm, and all were impatient to sail for home, the predic- 
tions of Columbus were treated with laughter and scorn, and the 
fleet immediately put to sea. The effect of this disdainful refusal 
to their commander to enter a port of their own country, or even 
to take shelter from a storm, so sadly and even superstitiously 
impressed the minds of the admiral's crews, that they murmured 
against the ill-treated admiral himself as if he were the cause of 
their exclusion, and they anticipated nothing but disaster under 
a commander who was thus denied the common offices of hu- 
manity. The fact alone, without reference to its injustice, was 
in their morbid imaginations an ill omen ; but soon the portents 
were reversed. They almost immediately afterward acknowl- 
edged that they owed their preservation to the very presence in 
some way, perhaps even miraculously, as the Count de Lorgues 
contends, of Columbus on their fleet. 

While Columbus took a partial shelter from the predicted 
storm in one of the harbors of this wild coast, the magnificent 
fleet of Bobadilla, consisting of twenty-eight vessels, with gayest 
music and joyous songs of home, put to sea, leaving behind them 
the harbor of safety. Scarcely had they reached the eastern 
end of Hispaniola before the storm signs gathered, and so rapidly 
did the tempest burst upon the fleet, that no time was given 



48o OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

them for any measures of safety. Accustomed as was this lati- 
tude to violent storms, this was one of the most violent ever ex- 
perienced. The first ship to sustain the shock of the hurricane 
was the flagship, having on board Bobadilla, Roldan, and the other 
most inveterate enemies of Columbus. Driven violently on a 
rock, she sank with all on board. Immense treasure went to the 
bottom with them. All the other ships were broken to pieces, 
and all were engulfed and perished with their crews except four. 
Of these four three, with great difficulty and in a miserable state, 
reached San Domingo ; but the fourth, the very ship on which 
was Carvajal with the admiral's gold and other property, the 
smallest of the fleet, rode the storm triumphantly and in the 
midst of universal wreck. This gallant little craft crossed the 
Atlantic in safety, and landed in Spain with every man and every 
ounce of gold. In the mean time, the four vessels of the admiral, 
all verging on unseaworthiness, survived the storm in safety, 
and while three of them — those that stood out to sea for safety 
from the rocks — sustained some injury, that in which the admiral 
was came forth totally uninjured. The four ships were sepa- 
rated during the storm, and the crew of each gave the other 
three up for lost. The ship which suffered most was the large 
caravel, which the admiral had desired to exchange at San 
Domingo, and which was saved solely by the consummate sea- 
manship of the Adelantado. What was not the joy of all on 
board when, on the following Sunday, the three ships at sea 
joined the admiral's in the harbor of Azua, just west of San 
Domingo. 

Columbus was now regarded as a seer by his crews, who so 
lately bemoaned their sad fate in sailing with him. His enemies 
regarded these extraordinary occurrences as grounds for fresh 
accusations, for he had, according to their malignant and super- 
stitious clamor, raised the storm by magic for the destruction of 
his enemies and their property, while he and his ships and crews 
escaped ; and even the ship which contained his property, 
though belonging to the lost fleet, escaped in safety with its 
treasures to Spain. The admiral himself, in his usual impulse 
of devotion and gratitude, referring all things to God, pro- 
nounced his preservation and the safety of his ships and prop- 
erty as a great public miracle. In Spain such a calamity, so 
general, so national, was regarded with consternation, and was 



ON COLUMBUS. 48 1 

followed by general mourning. The sovereigns reproved Ovando 
for refusing permission to Columbus to enter the port, and for 
not detaining the fleet as he had advised. How would it have 
been if the storm had not occurred ? Ovando would have been 
praised, while Columbus would have received the censure of 
both sovereigns and people. It seemed, not unfairly and justly, 
to require a miracle to sustain in such a crisis the cause of 
Columbus — which was, in fact, the cause of civilization and 
human progress — against the elements of selfishness and jeal- 
ousy, malice and hatred, which exist against the good and great 
in all ages and countries — an element so ignorant and narrow as 
not to see and to know that human progress and civilization are 
carried forward in the world by the energy and genius of great 
leaders of thought and of men. There were few of his contem- 
poraries who recognized such a man in Christopher Columbus. 
Now the fact is historical, and of general recognition. 

After spending several days in the harbor of Azua, resting his 
crews, and in refreshing them on the savory food they found in 
the flesh of a large fish harpooned and caught in the ba3% the 
squadron sailed on July 14th, and after spending some days at 
the small islands near Jamaica, which he named the Pozas or 
Puddles, in a calm, and again at the Queen's Gardens, near Cuba, 
they sailed again on the 27th to the southwest, toward the conti- 
nent. On July 30th, having come upon a small island, now 
known as Guanaja, the Adelantado, at the admiral's request, 
landed and found the soil fertile and green and the inhabitants 
similar to those of Hispaniola, except that their foreheads were 
more narrow. While thus engaged in examining the island, a 
very large Indian canoe approached the shore from the west, 
and was captured with its occupants and carried to the admiral. 
It was found to be hollowed, like others they had seen, from the 
trunk of a single tree, as long as a galley, eight feet wide ; it car- 
ried twenty-five rowers, and had erected in the centre an awning 
or tent made of palm leaves, under whose shelter reposed the 
cacique with his wives and children. Columbus was deeply 
interested in examining the men, the arrows, and other articles 
of manufacture or production, all clearly indicating his approach 
to countries of some civilization. He was particularly struck at 
finding among these people hatchets made of brass and other 
admirably constructed tools, which resembled those afterward 



482 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

found in Mexico, and formed either of clay, hard wood or 
marble. These natives were not in the least afraid of the Span- 
iards or their large ships ; both the men and the women were 
modestly clad, and among their articles of food were bread made 
of maize, a beverage made of the same, quantities of cacao, 
which the Spaniards had never before seen, and which the 
Indians so highly prized that they used it both for food and 
money. The women not only wore a jacket, which was colored 
and embroidered, but also a large sheet or blanket, which envel- 
oped their persons, and with which they covered their heads and 
part of the face. No doubt these Indians came from Yucatan,^ 
for they informed the admiral that they came from a very rich 
country lying to the west, where wealth abounded, and which 
was possessed of a fertile soil. They urged the admiral to sail 
thither. But he, ever intent on discovering the strait be- 
tween the two oceans, preferred to sail to the south and to the 
mainland, expecting to follow and explore the coast from Paria 
eastwardly until he should discover the desired passage. He 
dismissed the Indians with the exception of an old man, named 
Jumbe, who proved to be an intelligent guide and interpreter, 
and by exchanges obtained some of the implements and products 
of the country. He intended to visit these Indians and their 
country later, as he believed he would reach them by fol- 
lowing the coast of Cuba, which he still thought was the main- 
land, and whose shores must extend to those regions. Yucatan 
was. in fact, only forty leagues distant, and had he immediately 
accepted the invitation of the natives, what changes would have 
occurred in the history and fortunes of Columbus ! 

During all this time the squadron had experienced nothing but 
rough and tempestuous weather. The sailors had struggled day 
and night with the elements, were exhausted and sickened ; the 
miserable ships seemed at every moment about to founder. In 
the midst of such continued dangers and hardships for eighty- 
eight days, many of the sailors religiously prepared for death by 
confessing to each other, or endeavored to propitiate Heaven b}' 
vows to make pilgrimages on escaping safely their ever-threat- 
ened fate. It was impossible to enter a harbor in the midst of 
such storms ; the sun and stars could not be seen, the thunder 
and lightning were terrific, the ships leaked on every side, the 
sails were rent, anchors and tackle were lost, the cables, small 



ON COLUMBUS. 483 

boats, and even the provisions were not saved. It was under 
such difficulties that this great discoverer, though ill and dis- 
couraged, sought to solve the problem of the earth. To add to 
his extreme peril, his illness brought him to the point of death, 
while his ever-vigilant mind was most anxious for the safety of 
his young son and for that of his brother, who had accom- 
panied him against his will and purely through love and affec- 
tion. " Another thought that tore my heart," wrote the ad- 
miral, " was the remembrance of my son Diego, left an orphan 
in Spain, and deprived of my honors and emoluments." 
Carried by wind and weather to the Pozas Islands, near 
Jamaica, and even near to Cuba, the admiral persevered in 
his struggle with elements and storms, and without waiting 
for good weather or favorable winds, he had reached Guanaja 
on August 14th, and Cape Caxinas, now known as Cape Hon- 
duras, on the 1 6th. It is certainly an evidence of indomita- 
ble will, a proof of the characteristic courage and tenacity of his 
character, that under such circumstances he took possession of 
the country on August 17th, in the name of the Spanish sover- 
eigns, at a spot about fifteen leagues from Cape Caxinas, on the 
banks of a river which he called the River of Possession. Had 
Columbus yielded to the advice of the Indians in the large canoe 
at Guanaja, and pushed westward to the continent, he would 
have reached Yucatan in one or two days, and, as Mr. Irving 
remarks, " The discovery of Mexico and other opulent countries 
of New Spain would have necessarily followed ; the Southern 
Ocean would have been disclosed to him, and a succession of 
splendid discoveries would have shed fresh glory on his declin- 
ing age, instead of its sinking amid gloom, neglect, and disap- 
pointment." 

Continuing his course to the east, and hugging the coast as 
far as possible in order to find the expected strait, the great 
object of his expedition, they reached the eastern end of Hon- 
duras, where the coast bends suddenly to the south. Here, for 
the first time since their departure from Hispaniola, the winds 
blew in their favor, and for so unusual a favor the sailors burst 
forth in hymns of gratitude to God. The admiral, ever devout 
and religious in his character and life, gratefully called the cape 
Gracias a Dios. As the geographical knowledge of the old 
Indian guide Jumbe did not extend beyond this point, he was 



484 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

kindly discharged and sent home. At the River of Possession, 
near Cape Caxinas, the natives appeared in numbers, were 
friendly and hospitable, and brought to their visitors abundant 
supplies of bread and maize, fish and fowl, vegetables and fruits. 
After presenting these gifts by laying them before the Spaniards, 
they silently retired to a distance ; received presents in return 
with marked pleasure, and returned next day in greater numbers 
and with more generous supplies of food. Composed probably 
of different tribes, the natives, as the Spaniards progressed, 
spoke different dialects, and differed from each other in dress, 
decorations, and customs. While they resembled the Indians 
seen in the islands, they had lower foreheads, and were most 
careful in covering their persons. As the Spaniards progressed 
along the coast, this modesty disappeared ; the natives were en- 
tirely naked. They painted parts of their bodies black, and had 
their ears pierced with such large holes — as large as a hen's egg 
— that their visitors called their country Coast of the Ear. Some 
were said by Jumbe to be cannibals, though the Spaniards saw 
them do no worse than eat raw hsh. In another part of the 
coast the natives marked their bodies with the figures of various 
animals, using fire for that purpose. Some wore long tufts of 
hair on their foreheads as ornaments, and on feast days some 
of the tribes painted their bodies red or black, or made stripes 
on their bodies and faces and circles around their eyes. Young 
Fernando Columbus was astonished at such grotesque tastes, 
and thirty years later, when he wrote his father's life, he recalled 
their hideous appearance, and said : " They all believe that in 
these different states they are perfectly beautiful, whereas they 
are frightful as the very devils." * 

It was September 14th, 1502, when Columbus turned his prows 
southward from Cape Gracias a Dios, and explored the Mosquito 
Coast, which presented many varieties of rock, meadow, and 
fresh rivers, with abundance of fish and tortoises, rank vegeta- 
tion, and great quantities of large alligators basking in the sun. 
With a smooth sea and favorable wind the squadron reached on 
the 15th a fine river with a good harbor, where wood and water 



* Dr. Barry's translation of De Lorgues' "Columbus," pp. 441-59; Irving's 
" Columbus," vol. ii., pp. 305-20 ; Mr. Brownson's translation of Tarducci's " Colum- 
bus," vol. ii., pp. 227-40. 



ON COLUMBUS. 485 

were procured ; but just as the ships were about to leave the 
harbor, the sea suddenly rose and then rushed back with great 
violence into the mouth of the river, capsizing one of the ships, 
and carrying all on board to the bottom. Naming the place 
Rio del Desastre, or Disaster River, in token of their having 
encountered a renewal of their sad experiences, and now again 
continuing their course with a favorable wind, the}' reached, on 
Sunday, September 25th, a secure spot between a small island 
and the mainland. The admiral now rested his men from the 
fatigues and labors of the past three months, and repaired his 
ships. So beautiful was the landscape, so delightful the country 
on ever}^ side, that the admiral called the place the Orchard. 
The native name was Quiribiri, and a beautiful village on the 
banks of a charming river was called Cariay. At first the natives 
came forth with arms to defend their country, but as the Span- 
iards remained quietly at work on their ships, hostility was suc- 
ceeded by curiosity, then by visits and the exchange of presents. 
But when the Spaniards gave them presents and refused to re- 
ceive any from the natives, the latter with wounded pride gath- 
ered up all they had received from their visitors and left them 
in a bundle on the shore. Finally the Indians sent two girls to 
the ships as hostages for the safety of the Spaniards, who might 
come ashore, and these girls the admiral entertained hospitably, 
gave them fine dresses and presents, and sent them ashore, 
where they were received with great delight. But the Indians, 
after holding a consultation among themselves, insisted on re- 
turning all the presents received by the girls, because their 
visitors in turn would receive none. It is interesting and almost 
unaccountable thus to behold savages, utterly destitute of civili- 
zation and social culture, practising a refined reserve and artifi- 
cial etiquette not always observed in the most fastidious and 
refined communities. 

The admiral was anxious to learn more of this interesting 
people and their country. He sent the Adelantado with com- 
panions ashore ; and as he approached the natives came forward 
in the water to meet him, and two of them took him from his 
boat and carried him in their arms to the beach, and seated him 
with ceremony, in the midst of the assembled natives, on a bed 
of verdure on the bank. With only signs and gestures, and the 
pla}' of the features of the face, little could be ascertained, and 




486 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

when the natives saw the notary take out his pens and ink and 
commence to take down the conjectured responses to the Ade- 
lantado's inquiries, by drawing his hand regularly across tlie 
paper and leaving on it mystic signs, they suddenly, as if terror- 
stricken, all at once arose and fled with fright and precipitation. 
They regarded this mysterious proceeding as necromancy and 
magic. What is more singular in this event, is that the Indians 
returned afterward and endeavored to dispel the effect of the 
dark art as practised on them by the Spaniards, and to exorcise 
the Spaniards themselves, by casting on them powder and smoke 
of their own contrivance ; and that in turn the Spaniards, with a 
superstition perhaps equal to that of the Indians, became alarmed 
at the sorcery practised on them by the Indians. While the 
Indians, steeped in sorcery, suspected every act of the Spaniards 
which they could not understand to belong to their own dark 
art, the Spaniards attributed their delays and hardships on that 
coast to the magic arts of the natives. Even the admiral re- 
garded the inhabitants of these coasts as dangerous enchanters, 
and he suspected the two Indian girls, who had been sent on 
board his vessel, of having the magic powder hidden under their 
clothes. He gave an account of these singular impressions, on 
both sides, in a letter he wrote to the sovereigns from Jamaica. 

During several days' delay in this spot the ships were repaired, 
and the crews were permitted to enjoy the much-needed rest 
and recreation they desired, while the energetic and untiring 
Adelantado made an armed expedition of observation and inves- 
tigation into the country. He found no pure gold, but orna- 
ments of the baser guanin ; but as usual the natives assured him 
that gold would be found in abundance as the fleet proceeded 
farther down the coast. One custom prevailing among these 
people was that of taking special care of the remains of the dead, 
and paying a marked veneration to them. A large house was 
seen containing a number of sepulchres, in which were found a 
dead body embalmed, "others wrapped in cotton, so as to prevent 
any disagreeable odor. The bodies of the dead were decked 
in ornaments more valuable than those worn by the living, and 
their graves were embellished with rude paintings or carvings, 
or with portraits of the deceased. Before sailing Columbus 
seized seven of the natives for guides, but their countrymen were 
exceedingly distressed or incensed at this act, and they sent four 



ON COLUMBUS. 487 

of their principal men with presents to the ships, to entreat the 
admiral to release them. Neither the presents he gave in return 
nor the assurances of his intention soon to restore them safely to 
their homes succeeded in removing the fear and grief of these 
people at seeing some of their companions carried away by these 
fearful and mysterious people.* 

Columbus sailed with his squadron from Cariay on October 
5th, Having coasted along a region of great verdure and 
beauty, he came to another, which the natives of Cariay on board 
called Caribaro, and which they assured the Spaniards abounded 
in gold. As the ships proceeded near the shores the men were 
astonished to find that between a multitude of small islands the 
boats passed through deep channels free from obstructions as 
securely as if they were artificial canals, while the hanging spray 
of trees and vines swept the rigging and masts of the ships. It 
was a scene of unsurpassed beauty. On arriving here the boats 
were sent to one of the islands, where the Spaniards saw twenty 
canoes, whose late occupants had timidl}^ hid themselves in the 
woods ; they were perfectly naked, but ornamented with gold 
plates. They exchanged for small trifles a plate of gold which 
was worth ten ducats. The boats were sent ashore again the 
day after their arrival at Caribao. A number of canoes were 
seen on the shore of the mainland filled with Indians, whose 
heads were garlanded with flowers and crowns constructed of 
animals and birds' feathers, and with plates of pure gold around 
their necks ; but they could not be induced to part with their 
golden ornaments. When two of these natives were seized and 
carried before the admiral, one of them was found to wear a 
plate of gold worth fifteen ducats, and another an eagle of gold, 
which was worth twenty-two ducats. The captured Indians 
informed the admiral that there were places in the interior, and 
•only one or two days' journey distant, where gold abounded 
in great quantities. They mentioned a place with unbounded 
treasure, which they called Veragua, a name which afterward 
became the ducal title of the descendants of Columbus. Veragua 
was twenty-five leagues distant, and was represented as particu- 



* Mr. Brownson's translation of Tarducci's "Life of Columbus," vol. ii., pp. 241- 
45 ; Irving's "Columbus," vol. ii., pp. 321-27; Dr. Barry's translation of De 
Lorgues' "Columbus," p. 462. 



488 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

larly rich in gold. This coast, on account of its abundance of 
mines of gold and silver, was afterward called and is now known 
as Costa Rica. 

While the cupidity of his companions was greatl}^ aroused by 
the sight of so much gold, Columbus, after obtaining only speci- 
mens of the precious metal, and all the information the natives 
could impart, was unwilling to sacrifice to any temporary gain 
in treasure the great object of his enterprise — the discovery of 
the passage he was seeking between the Atlantic and Pacific 
oceans. It was thus with Columbus on all occasions : his am- 
bition and his personal glory, his fortunes and every hope of 
wealth, were subordinated to the great and paramount interests 
and welfare of his enterprise and country. On October 17th the 
admiral commenrced the exploration of the coast of the countr}- 
of great reputed wealth, to which was afterward given the name 
of Veragua, a name now indissolubly associated w'ith his fame 
and family. He proceeded twelve leagues, and then the boats 
went ashore for wood and water ; but the natives assembled 
under arms and with every indication of hostility to dispute the 
approach of these strangers, even advancing out into the water 
to their waists, yelling, brandishing their weapons, and spitting 
at the Spaniards a certain herb they v/ere chev/ing. Signs of 
peace from the Spanish vessels placated the w^arlike savages, 
and when the Spaniards landed they obtained readily in exchange 
for bells and other trifles the plates of gold which the natives 
wore around their necks. Sixteen plates of gold of the value 
of one hundred and fifty ducats were thus obtained at little 
cost. On the 28th the Spaniards again went to renew the 
traffic in gold, but the fickle Indians had become hostile again, 
and prepared to rush from their concealment and attempt the 
massacre of their visitors. Seeing the Spaniards in their boats 
and on their guard, the savages, more like angry children 
than warriors, rushed forth into the sea, as they had done the 
day before, threatening the Spaniards at the water's edge, while 
the forests resounded w^th their war-whoops. The arrow dis- 
charged from a Spanish cross-bow, which wounded a native, and 
the discharge of a gun from a ship, terrified the Avarlike savages, 
and put them to flight ; but again the Spanish sailors and 
soldiers, by calling to them, soon pacified them, and secured 
more plates of gold in exchange for European trifles. At another 



ON COLUMBUS. 489 

place farther along the coast, and called Catiba, the same scenes 
occurred : the warlike demonstrations of the naked natives dis- 
appeared before the friendly advances of .the visitors ; visits 
were exchanged, and a trade in plates of gold and hawks' bells 
ensued. At this place nineteen plates of gold were procured, 
and here for the first time were seen signs of permanent build- 
ing ; and Columbus, persuaded that he was approaching a region 
of greater civilization, took a sample from a large piece of stucco 
composed apparently of stone and lime. 

The admiral continued his voyage, and availed himself of every 
opportunity of obtaining specimens of the products of the country, 
and all possible information of a geographical character from 
the natives. After encountering another terrific storm, which 
caused him to forego his intention of visiting the various rivers 
and their vicinities, he pushed on and passed five large villages, 
one of which was Veragua, from which the neighboring district 
was named. Veragua was also said to be the region richest in 
gold, and here most of the plates of gold worn by the inhabitants 
of the Mosquito Coast were made. Cubiga was said to be the 
last of the villages in this golden region, which commenced at 
Cerabora and ended here. Rejecting all temptations to land 
and explore the golden region of Veragua, Columbus continued 
his search for the expected passage with unwavering constancy 
and perseverance. His action here was justl)' mentioned by 
Mr. Irving as actuated by a " generous ambition," seeking rather 
the benefit of mankind than wealth, and resting satisfied for his 
own part with " the glory of the discovery." * 

During this interesting and important voyage, the investiga- 
tions and inquiries, the information and suggestions obtained by 
Columbus were momentous and significant ; for although he did 
not discover with his eyes the other sea, he gathered informa- 
tion which unmistakably showed to his intelligent judgment 
and, when revealed by him, to the minds of the world, the exist- 
ence of the other ocean beyond the land. Convinced that he 
was still in the remote parts of Asia, as all the world believed 
with him, and, in common with the other learned men of his 
age, mistaken as to the size of the earth, he concluded that the 
great and opulous nation called by the natives Ciguare, whose 



* Irving's " Columbus," vol. ii., p. 333. 



490 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

inhabitants wore crowns as well as bracelets and anklets of 
gold, used the precious metal for domestic purposes and even 
for ornamenting their seats and tables, carried on an immense 
commerce, had opulent and busy seaports, used large ships 
armed with cannon, rode on horseback, and were armed very 
much like Europeans, must be on the other sea, and was one of 
the domains of the Grand Khan. This view was confirmed in 
his mind also by the pepper and spices shown him, which he 
knew well were among the products of Asia, by the warlike 
character of the natives of Ciguare, as represented by the Indians, 
and, while the sea continued round to that country, the great 
river ten days' travel beyond must be the Ganges. We now 
know, from the subsequent discovery and conquest of the rich 
countries of Mexico and Peru, abounding in wealth of every 
kind, that these latter were the countries of whose existence 
Columbus was the first European to obtain the least and the 
earliest knowledge. Had he been furnished with suitable squad- 
rons and with ample military and naval means and outfits, his 
enterprising career would unquestionably have been crowned 
by the discovery of Mexico and Peru, of the two Continents of 
America, and of the Pacific Ocean. 

Continuing his cruise, Columbus, on November 2d, arrived at 
a large and beautiful bay, to which he gave the name of Puerto 
Bello, to commemorate its beauty. Here he saw the houses of 
the natives scattered through a beautiful grove, with plantations 
of maize, vegetables, and fruits. The natives were friendly and 
hospitable, generous with their provisions and fruits, possessed 
no gold except small ornaments of it, which the cacique and his 
seven chief officers wore in their nostrils. All were naked, and 
the people were painted red, while the cacique was painted 
black. As the squadron proceeded they visited a place fruitful 
in spontaneous products, and to which Columbus gave the name 
of Port of Provisions. The natives were so much afraid of the 
strange visitors that, when some of them in a canoe were pur- 
sued by a boat from the ship, they sprang into the water and 
made good their escape, swimming when necessary under water. 
On November 23d the admiral, deceived as to its safety by the 
sailors, who were anxious to land and trade with the natives, 
entered another small harbor, which proved dangerous, and to 
which he gave the name of El Retrete, the Closet. Here the 



ON COLUMBUS. 49I 

inhabitants were tall, slender, well formed and handsome in face 
and movement, and were friendly and hospitable. The shores 
abounded in alligators, and so numerous as to infect the air with 
a musky odor. The Indians freely exchanged their provisions 
for European trifles, but their friendly intercourse was inter- 
rupted by the avarice and licentiousness of the sailors, who found 
it easy to escape from the ships at night and visit the villages on 
shore, outraging the natives, and bringing on nightly brawls 
and bloody fights, and finally causing the Indians to assemble 
in numbers to take revenge and drive the intruders from their 
country. A shot from the guns loaded with a blank cartridge 
failed to produce more than a temporary fright. The vices of 
the Spaniards had proved them, to the Indians, to be even less 
than human in their morals ; surely they could not be invulner- 
able. When the Indians renewed with increased rage their prep- 
arations for attack, a cannon-ball, which struck on a little cliff in 
the midst of a group of them, put them all to flight. Unfavor- 
able winds and long confinement in El Retrete, the belief that the 
Indians were using sorcery to influence the weather against 
them, and the miserable condition of the ships, were unanswer- 
able arguments against remaining here longer. The result finally 
arrived at by Columbus, though with great reluctance, was that 
the strait which he had so studiously conjectured and meditated 
upon in the halls of the Alhambra, and had now so earnestly and 
persistently sought, must be either much farther to the south 
and through the great continent he had previously discovered, 
or not in existence. However, he found it impossible to follow 
up the exploration at this time, and leaving it for a future effort, 
he announced to the glad sailors his intention of returning to 
seek out the rich mines of Veragua, of which he had heard so 
much. 

The observant mind of Columbus had been guided by the 
peculiar configuration of the lands to the conclusion that the 
interoceanic passage must here be found ; for here Nature 
seemed to have struggled to open for herself a passage, and for 
the severance of the two great American continents. It is re- 
markable that here, too, in our times man, induced by the neces- 
sities of commerce, the formation of the continents, and the nar- 
rowness of the land dividing the oceans, has selected this very 
place for accomplishing b}' human labor and science the verv 



492 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

thing which nature seems to have attempted, but desisted from 
accomplishing. They were then on the coast of Chagres, near 
Panama ; and here it is that an artificial passage, the Panama 
Canal, will accomplish the union of the oceans. Mr. Irving 
says : ' ' Here, then, ended the lofty anticipations which had 
elevated Columbus above all mercenary interests ; which had. 
made him regardless of hardships and perils, and given an heroic 
character to the early part of this voyage. It is true, he had 
been in pursuit of a mere chimera, but it was the chimera of a 
splendid imagination and a penetrating judgment. If he was 
disappointed in his expectation of finding a strait through the 
Isthmus of Darien, it was because Nature herself had been dis- 
appointed, for she appears to have attempted to make one, but 
to have attempted it in vain." Tarducci also writes : " In our 
days, just where Columbus looked for his strait, human genius 
and activity are repairing nature's fault, and opening the pas- 
sage between the two oceans which Columbus had judged must 
exist." And the Count de Lorgues writes : " He searched for 
it [the passage] wherever a particular configuration seems to 
have prepared for the severance of the two great parts of the 
American Continent. One would say that Nature was suddenl}^ 
arrested in her work by the Most High, who, no doubt, reserves 
for the genius of man the opening of this grand passage. Colum- 
bus came to designate its locality." * 

For three months Columbus had encountered almost constant 
storms, and those of the greatest violence. His crews were ex- 
hausted. While sailing southwest, Columbus had anxiously de- 
sired a wind from the west ; now when he was sailing west he 
encountered powerful winds from the west, driving him to the 
east ; and unable to reach Veragua, he was compelled to return 
to Puerto Bello ; and here the storm grew fiercest. Columbus 
himself describes it in his letter from Jamaica : " Never was the 
sea so high, so frightful, so foamy. The wind did not permit 
me to advance, but held me in that sea, which seemed all blood, 
and boiled like a caldron over a hot fire ; never was the aspect 
of the sky seen so fearful, bui-ning like a fiery furnace day and 



* Mr. Brownson's translation of Tarducci's "Columbus," vol. ii., pp. 241-54; 
Irving's "Columbus," vol. ii., pp. 328-3S ; Dr. Barry's translation of Count de 
Lorgues' " Columbus," p. 463. 



ON COLUMBUS. 493 

night, and thundering so that I looked every instant to see if my 
masts were still standing. The lightning was so dreadful that 
every one believed the vessels would be destroyed. During all 
this time the water never ceased to pour from the heavens ; nor 
could it be said to rain, fer it was rather another deluge. The 
crews were reduced to such a state that they wished for death 
to free them from such misery." 

The violence of the storm seemed to culminate in its greatest 
violence on December 13th, and such was the fright which pre- 
vailed among all on board, that the sudden and short peals of 
thunder sounded, to the crews of each ship, like signals of dis- 
tress from the other imperilled ships. Then, too, the ocean 
became strangely agitated, while the water rose suddenly 
and vertically in the air, drawing in the foaming waves, and 
rising cone-shaped to the clouds ; and at the same moment the 
livid clouds came down to meet the rising waters, and joining 
themselves together, and whirling and advancing with great 
violence and noise, approached the ships. Columbus had for 
several days been suffering so intensely from one of his old 
attacks of illness that his life was despaired of ; and the pious 
Franciscan, Father Alexander, had already yielded up his own 
life on board one of the ships, the first martyr-death on that 
western ocean. But now the extreme peril aroused the admiral 
to his accustomed energy, and he arose from his bed to cheer 
his men and meet the emergency. He, and his sailors, follow- 
ing his example, in this great danger resorted to Heaven, since 
no human science could avail them. They all recited passages 
from the Gospel of St. John, to which then, as now, was attrib- 
uted a miraculous efficacy, and the admiral made the sign of 
the cross with his sword and drew a circle as if to cut off the 
approach of the storm-monster. Tarducci says, '' The effect cor- 
responded to his faith ;" for the dreadful waterspout, seething 
and hissing, passed between the ships, tossing them about most 
fearfully, but finally subsiding in the immensity of the ocean 
with frightful noise. To the astonishment of all, and to the de- 
light of the grateful sailors, the ships were safe. The resort to 
the Gospel of St. John is now a well-known custom in time of 
peril, both at sea and on land ; but Tarducci says it is uncertain 
whether Columbus followed a then prevailing devotion or was 
the first to commence it, which from his remarkable example and 



494 OT^^ AND NEW LIGHTS 

from its accorded efficacy has since become traditional and gen- 
eral. On the following night the Vizcaina, one of the caravels, was 
missing, but on the third day it rejoined the other ships, having 
only sustained the loss of her small boat and an anchor. The crews 
were now exhausted and prostrated. A strange sight presented 
itself to their view : the ships wer'e surrounded by sharks, which 
were believed by the sailors to possess an instinctive anticipation 
of shipwreck and a scent of human victims for their rapacious 
appetites and to surround and pursue with voraciousness a ship in 
danger, and be ready for the coming feast. But, as it resulted, 
some of the sharks were themselves captured, and the keen 
hunger of the sailors found in their usually unsavory flesh an 
acceptable repast. The provisions of fish and flesh on the ships 
had become exhausted, and the biscuit had become so ruined bv 
moisture and heat that it was swarming with worms. Fernando 
Columbus thus describes the sailors eating their biscuit-rations : 

So help me God, as I saw many of them wait till night to con- 
sume their rations, so as not to see the worms they were eating ; 
others got so accustomed to them, that they would not cast 
them off when they did see them, because they would reduce the 
ration too much."* It is not at all surprising, then, that from 
such rations as these the sailors did full honor to the feast on 
the shark's flesh, though there was a sailors' superstition against 
eating it. In the stomach of one of the sharks was found a live 
tortoise, which afterward became a pet with the sailors on the 
ship ; and in that of another was found the entire head of one of 
his companions, which had lately been cut off and thrown into 
the sea. It is difficult to tell whether the appetite of the sharks 
or that of the sailors was most voracious. 

On December 17th the vessels entered the harbor of Puerto 
Bello. The Spaniards visited the village of Huiva, and rested 
there three days. The houses of the natives were built in the 
trees, like the nests of birds, and poles were stretched for this 
purpose from tree to tree to support the houses. Whether this 
was resorted to as a protection from wild beasts or their no less 
savage and murderous human neighbors could not be ascer- 
tained. In their state of nature, and on this coast, man and beast 
were equally ferocious, and man was constantly at war with 



" Historia del Almirante," cap. xciv. 



ON COLUMBUS, 495 

man. Owing to repeated storms and adverse winds, the fleet 
was nearly thirty days in 'reaching Veragua from Puerto Bello, 
a distance of thirty leagues. As they arrived at Veragua on the 
Epiphany, and celebrated the visit of the wise men from the 
East visiting the Infant Saviour at Bethlehem, the admiral named 
the river Belen, the Spanish name for Bethlehem. The coast 
which he had passed with so much difficulty and suffering was 
named the Coast of Oppositions. 

On the river Belen, as well as on the river Veragua, the inhabit- 
ants, though at first hostile and belligerent, were addressed in 
their own language by the Indian guide on the ships, and were 
easily pacified with presents, and soon entered into trade with 
the Spaniards. Columbus ordered both rivers to be sounded. 
The natives of both places confirmed the accounts already re- 
ceived as to the abundance and richness of the gold-mines of 
Veragua. The Veraguans informed the admiral that these 
mines of gold lay in the distant mountains. It would seem that 
the Indians attributed something of a sacred character to the 
precious metal, for they informed the admiral that they observed 
strict continence and fasted twenty days before going to the 
mountains for gold. He made an earnest appeal to his own fol- 
lowers, as they were Christians and trained to render to God 
prayers and works of self-denial in gratitude for the gifts they 
received from Heaven, that they would prove themselves not 
inferior to the heathen natives, who, without a vestige of relig- 
ious training, were accustomed to purify themselves by conti- 
nence and fasting for receiving the gifts which God had be- 
stowed upon their country. It was, however, in vain that 
Columbus exhorted the demoralized Spanish sailors and men to 
prepare themselves for the search for gold, according to Chris- 
tian methods, by continence, fasting, and confession. Their 
avarice and their lusts found ready answers and excuses for de- 
clining his wholesome advice. For a few European trifles the 
Spaniards had already obtained in exchange twenty plates of 
gold, with a number of pipes of gold and crude pieces of ore. 
These treasures added stimulus to the already inflamed avarice 
of the Spaniards. Human passions seem ever ready in these 
early advances of Europeans in America to degrade Christians 
below the standard of their faith, and to give them no advantage 
in contrast with the pagans in their conduct. The impression 



496 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

that they came from Heaven was soon rudely dispelled, and the 
Indians learned from European vices, of which they had been 
ignorant, lessons of depravity and degradation. 

Columbus entered the Belen River with his ships as a secure 
place of anchor, though he would have preferred the Veragua 
River had it been of sufficient depth of water, as it communi- 
cated with gold regions of that name. The natives received 
their visitors with apparent joy, and brought every kind of food 
in which the country abounded. They also brought various 
ornaments* of gold, which they said came from Veragua, and 
which they observed were more coveted by the Spaniards than 
even food itself. They gladly accepted European trifles in ex- 
change. Every account confirmed the reports of the golden 
treasures at Veragua. The Adelantado accordingl}^ ascended 
the river Veragua in the boats, which were well manned and 
armed, visited the Quibian, the principal cacique, at his residence, 
about a league and a half off, was met by him on the way in his 
canoes, and attended by many of his subjects. This friendly 
interview was followed by a visit of the cacique to the admiral 
and the fleet, where he was entertained with regal hospitality. 
On both occasions the cacique was apparently well pleased to 
part with his jewels of gold for trifling returns. He was a fine 
specimen of Indian manhood and beauty, tall and powerful in 
frame, warlike in demeanor, taciturn and cautious in his inter- 
course. Though his visit to the admiral was outwardly cordial, 
it was significantl}' short. 

While Columbus was thus securely resting with his ships in 
the river Belen, and contrasting its quiet waters with the stormy 
ocean without, a peril suddenly came upon the fleet from within. 
The waters of the river came rushing from the interior in a great 
torrent — no doubt a freshet from the mountains, caused by heavy 
rains, and the ships were in danger of immediate wreck, as the 
storm then prevailing at sea prevented them from seeking safety 
without. Having escaped this unexpected peril with little more 
damage than the loss of the mainmast of his own ship, the ad- 
miral and his crews found the weather too boisterous for moving 
about until February 6th, when the waters became calmer. The 
Adelantado then proceeded with sixty-eight men in the boats to 
explore the Veragua River, was received by the Quibian at his 
village with great courtesy, and was furnished by the chief with 



ON COLUMBUS. 49/ 

three guides for visiting the muies, to which visit and expedition 
he gave his consent. The cacique was cautious and prudent, 
and when he saw his inabiHty to resist openly these powerful 
intruders, he concealed his hostility as well as he could in his 
own breast. On arriving at the region to which the Indian 
guides had conducted him, the Adelantado was struck with 
admiration at the beauty and grandeur of the country. Gold 
abounded everywhere, and from the surface the Spaniards easily 
gathered considerable quantities of gold in two hours. While 
the soil was spangled with gold, the precious particles were im- 
bedded in the roots of the trees. On ascending a high hill a 
country of great extent and magnificence burst upon his view. 
Boundless forests spread out before him ; the trees were of the 
largest, size ; and the whole region was declared by the guides 
to abound in gold. Returning to the Belen, the Adelantado 
gave the admiral a glowing account of the country he had visited, 
and of its unbounded riches. It came to light, however, that 
the guides, under secret instructions from the wily cacique, had 
carried the Spaniards to the dominions of his enemy, a neighbor- 
ing chief, with whom he was at war, and that the mines of Ve- 
ragua were much nearer and richer. 

The Adelantado was not discouraged, but on February i6th 
he went forth on another exploring expedition along the west- 
ward coast, accompanied by fifty-nine armed men, while a boat 
with fourteen men followed them along the shore. This new 
region was equally rich in gold, and abounded in cultivated 
maize and delicious fruits. The natives wore around their necks 
great plates of gold. The Indians parted readily with their 
golden treasures, and from them he heard the most glowing 
accounts of a great and opulent nation in the interior, whose 
inhabitants, unlike the naked Quibian and his people, wore 
clothes, were armed like the Spaniards, and were far advanced 
in civilization. On hearing these inspiring accounts the ad- 
miral congratulated himself on his near approach to the opu- 
lent regions of Asia ; the mines of Veragua must be the same 
with those exhaustless gold deposits of the Aurea Chersone- 
sus, from which Solomon drew the gold for ornamenting the 
great temple of Jerusalem, and the Ganges could not be be- 
yond his reach. Such were the conclusions which so good a 
geographer and cosmographer drew from the dim allusions of 



498 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

the Indians of Veragua to what must have been the Peruvian 
Empire. 

From the explorations of the country by the Adelantado, the 
admiral was convinced that the river Belen afforded the best 
port for ships, and that Veragua was the richest in gold of all 
the districts within his reach. The admiral's disappointment at 
not discovering the interoceanic passage had preyed severely 
upon his sanguine mind, and had contributed much toward the 
aggravation of the disease which for nine days had brought him 
to the verge of death. But now the discovery of a rich gold- 
bearing country, from whose inexhaustible treasures the ex- 
chequer of Spain would be replenished, his own fortunes re- 
stored, the Holy Sepulchre wrested from the Moslem thraldom, 
and by the discovery of which his own fame would be vindicated 
before the world and posterity — these fortunate circumstances 
elevated his hopes and spirits to the highest point of his enthusi- 
astic nature. " But there is one thing," he wrote from Jamaica, 
" I venture to report, for there were many eye-witnesses, and 
that is, that more traces of gold were seen in two days in Ve- 
ragua than in the whole four years in Hispaniola ; and that more 
fertile or better cultivated lands than those around it could not 
be desired. . . . At a single time there was brought to Solo- 
mon six hundred and sixty-six quintals of gold, besides what he 
had of the merchants and seamen, and not counting what was 
paid in Arabia. Of this gold were made two hundred lances and 
three hundred shields ; the roof [of the temple] was decorated 
with this metal, and enamelled with precious stones ; and many 
other things were made of it, and numerous large vases were 
spread over with precious stones. Josephus speaks of it in his 
chronicles de antiqiiitatibiis. It is also spoken of in Paralipomenon 
and the Book of Kings. Josephus is of opinion that the gold 
came from the Aurea ; and if so, I maintain that the mines of 
the Aurea are absolutely identical with those of Veragua, which, 
as I have already stated, extend westward more than twenty 
days' journey, equally distant from the pole and the line. All 
those things — gold, silver, and precious stones — were bought by 
Solomon ; but here in this place all that is necessary, if gold is 
wanted, is to send to gather it. David in his testament left 
Solomon three thousand quintals of gold from the Indies to aid 
in building the temple ; and, according to Josephus, it came 



ON COLUMBUS. 499 

from these same lands. Jerusalem and the Mount of Zion must 
be restored by the hands of a Christian, and God, by the mouth 
of the prophet, has said so in the fourteenth psalm. Abbot 
Joachim asserts that this Christian must come from Spain. St. 
Jerome pointed out to the Holy Spouse [the Church] the way to 
succeed. The Emperor of Cathay asked long- ago for learned 
men to instruct him in the faith of Christ. Who will present 
himself for this mission ? If our Lord grants me to return to 
Spain, I bind myself, in God's name, to carry him thither safe 
and sound." * 

The admiral decided to found a colony on the Belen River, 
which should be the great mart for the wealth of the countr}^ ; 
this extensive realm should be taken possession of in the names 
of the Spanish sovereigns, and the mines of Veragua should be 
vigorously worked. The Adelantado was to remain in command 
of the colony with eighty men, and these were divided into sec- 
tions of ten men each, and these began with alacrity and good- 
will to build the dwellings and a large storehouse, which were 
built of wood and palm-leaf thatched. While a considerable 
part of the provisions and artillery was placed in the warehouse, 
the principal part was left on board the Gallego for the use of 
the colon}'. The food provisions were chiefly left on the other 
ships of the squadron, as the soil was rich and yielded abundant 
crops, while the river and sea abounded in fish. The fishing tackle 
consequently was left on the Gallego. The native beverages of 
the country, extracted from the pineapple, palm-trees, and other 
fruits would afford pleasant drink even for Europeans. The 
admiral with the other ships and crews was to return to Spain, 
and he expected soon to return with an abundant supply of men 
and provisions to give the assurance of permanency to the 
colony. He took great pains, as well he knew how, to conciliate 
the good will of the natives, and to reconcile them to the intru- 
sion of strangers into their country. And now that the houses 
were sufficiently advanced to afford shelter for the colonists, the 
admiral prepared to leave, while the brave and resolute Adelan- 
tado calmly assumed the care and leadership of this, the second 
hopeful yet dangerous experiment of European colonization in 



♦ Mr. Brownson's translation of Tarducci's " Life of Columbus," vol. ii., pp, 264- 
66. 



500 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

America ; but now the ship, owing to the dry weather and low 
tide, could not pass out of the river, while the ocean lashed the 
shores most violently without. 

The cacique of Veragua, who had nursed his resentment at the 
intrusion of the white men into his country, and now saw their 
preparations for a permanent settlement, prepared, as he trusted, 
to annihilate the strangers at one blow. While he was thus 
assembling his forces from all parts on the Veragua River for 
this fierce and resolute attack, it was given out that he was pre- 
paring for war with a neighboring tribe. It was fortunate that 
these measures of the proud and jealous chief were developed 
before the departure of the admiral and the ships. It was the 
faithful and intrepid Diego Mendez that penetrated the designs 
of the Quibian. He offered the admiral his services to discover 
the true state of things. He was peculiarly fitted for so bold 
and perilous a ser^vice. Proceeding in his boat with a few armed 
men along the coast to the Veragua River, he soon saw a thou- 
sand armed and provisioned Indians marching toward the Belen. 
He boldly sprang ashore and mingled with the native army, and 
when they said they were marching against the Cobrava Auriva 
Indians, he offered to go with them with his boat and men and 
fight on their side. He saw, from his services being declined, 
from their evident embarrassment of manner and looks, and their 
manifest desire to get rid of him, that they were treacherousl}' 
marching on the Spanish colony. So, too, when the Indians 
saw him return to his boat and watch their movements, they 
returned the same night to Veragua. When Mendez returned 
and reported to the admiral his conviction that the warlike 
movement was directed against the Belen colony, and when the 
admiral hesitated to strike a blow against the conspiring natives 
for fear of doing them an injustice, Mendez, with characteristic 
intrepidity, offered to penetrate the Indian camp and visit the 
Quibian at his residence. As he proceeded to this perilous mis- 
sion he received unerring confirmation of his suspicions, and yet 
he pushed on. Having with consummate strategy penetrated 
to the very residence of the cacique, and by his ingenuity and 
address escaped an almost certain death, he returned and re- 
ported to the admiral the plan of the Indians to march under 
cover of the night upon the Belen colon3^ and by fire and weapon 
destroy the settlement, the ships, and all the Spaniards at a blow. 



i 



ON COLUMBUS. 50I 

The bold and desperate resolve was now made of gaining the 
presence of the cacique by stratagem, arresting him there by 
main force, and bringing him to the ships for immediate trans- 
portation as a prisoner to Spain. This accomplished, the con- 
quest of Veragua and its inhabitants would prove an eas}' task. 
The Adelantado, accompanied by eighty armed men, among 
whom was the intrepid and wil}' Mendez, undertook this peril- 
ous duty, and under circumstances as remarkable and astonishing 
as they were romantic. Those brave and deliberate soldiers, 
the Adelantado and Mendez, accomplished their difficult mission. 
The Adelantado with consummate strategy reached the royal 
presence, captured the Quibian with his own stout hands, and 
though he thus encountered a desperate and powerful athletic 
and brave foe, he conquered him by personal strength and agil- 
ity, and his own men rushing to his aid, made prisoners of the 
entire household of the chief — men, women, an^d children — to the 
number of fifty. The Spaniards, in the heart of the enemy's 
country, were in peril for their own safety ; how could they also 
secure and send back their prisoners through the infuriated 
bands of Indians, the chief prisoner's devoted subjects ? Don 
Bartholomew resolved to remain at Veragua to follow up his 
work, and Juan Sanchez earnestly sought the perilous honor of 
carrying the cacique and delivering him to the admiral on board 
his ship. It was a difficult task to carry so powerful a prisoner 
to Belen, and so eager was Sanchez to be selected for the accom- 
plishment of the feat, that he offered to have his beard plucked 
out, hair by hair, if the Quibian should escape. Proceeding with 
the royal prisoner, not only bound hand and foot, but also tied 
by a cable to the boat's bench, the party had reached within half 
a mile of the mouth of the Veragua. The night was dark ; all 
danger of rescue was over. So tightly was the prisoner secured, 
that he complained constantly of pain, and finally Sanchez, 
moved with pity for the cacique's sufferings, compassionately 
loosened the cable from the bench and held it in his hand. The 
prisoner feigned great sufferings, and pretended to be half dead. 
His eyes were never taken off Sanchez ; suddenly, when the latter 
was looking another way, the wily Indian dropped into the 
water, and Sanchez would have been dragged in also by the 
cable and its ponderous burden had he not let go his hold. In 
the darkness of the night and confusion of the scene the cacique 



502 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

escaped, and Sanchez, " cursing himself and Heaven," returned 
to the fleet with his other prisoners, but overwhelmed with 
chagrin and mortification at his blunder and misfortune. He 
had been outwitted by a savage. Don Bartholomew found it 
impracticable to follow up the war with adequate results, so he 
returned to the colony with an immense booty captured in the 
cacique's house, such as large plates of gold and ornaments of 
every kind, amounting in value to three hundred ducats, one 
thousand two hundred and eighty-one dollars of our money. 
The royal fifth was set aside from the plunder, and the rest was 
divided among the brave men who had undertaken the enter- 
prise. Don Bartholomew received as a trophy of his gallantry 
and success one of the golden coronets. It was the compassion 
of Sanchez toward his prisoner in relaxing his bonds that stood 
between the admiral and the conquest of some of the richest and 
most important portions and perhaps empires of the new world. 
But for this trifling incident Columbus would probably have 
advanced to the conquests which Cortez and Pizarro so brilliantly 
achieved in Mexico and Peru. So far-reaching was this act of 
clemenc}^ in its effects, that the destiny of future empires was 
affected by it, the public history of Spain, of Europe, and of the 
world was changed, the fortunes of Columbus ruined, and per- 
haps the possession of the Holy Land lost to Christendom. And 
yet our sympathies must go out to the act of clemency, while 
the cause of a chief seized and doomed to exile and humiliation 
for defending his own under the law of nature, in the light of 
true justice, seems to outweigh the highest aspirations and results 
of our own aggressive civilization. Retribution soon followed, 
Columbus now considered profoundly and earnestly what next 
steps were to be taken in the momentous movement of European 
civilization upon the domains of nature, the advance of Christianity 
into the realms of paganism, in which he was the pioneer. It was 
thought probable if not certain that the Quibian had perished in 
the v/ater, for how could it be otherwise with a man whose hands 
and feet were tied ? Without their powerful, warlike, and popu- 
lar leader, the Veraguans could be easily conquered, their fertile 
countrj^ seized, and the inexhaustible gold-mines worked with 
success. Even if the cacique survived, he and his people must 
have been terrified by the boldness, skill, and power of the 
Spaniards, and discouraged by the capture and imprisonment of 



ON COLUMBUS. 503 

the royal family. Surely these naked savages would not dare to 
encounter the champions of civilization and of the crown of 
Spain. The admiral regarded the prospects of his new enter- 
prise as most favorable. In the mean time, heavy rains had 
fallen ; the ships were relieved of their cargoes and towed, 
though with difficulty, out of the river, and when the cargoes 
were reshipped on board, as was soon accomplished, the admiral 
was ready to sail. It was the admiral's intention to touch at 
Hispaniola, and thence send provisions and reinforcements to 
sustain the infant colony, planted in a wilderness and surrounded 
by enemies smarting under their wrongs. It only needed a 
favorable wind for the ships to sail. 

On April 6th, 1503, the admiral's boat was sent ashore. The 
sacrifice of its passengers proved the salvation of the rest of the 
Spaniards. The Indian cacique, though bound hand and foot, 
was so accustomed to the water, that he glided like a fish to the 
shore, crawled to the woods, and was soon once more at the 
head of his warriors, all vowing the utmost vengeance upon their 
white assailants. The chief stealthily reconnoitred the vessels, 
and saw his wives and children and his whole family carried out 
of the river, and on the eve of being carried into perpetual exile. 
Every natural and just instinct of his fierce nature was aroused. 
As chieftain, as husband, as father, as a man, he saw every right 
of his outraged, and he now devoted his whole existence to re- 
venge, for the intruders had not all departed from the land to 
the ships. He assembled his warriors secretly to the number of 
four hundred. The colony did not, besides Don Bartholomew 
and Mendez, exceed seventy Spaniards on shore. The Indian 
army advanced, under cover of the woods, while the Spaniards, 
intent on the immediate preparations for the departure of the 
ships, and lured to carelessness by the confidence they felt in the 
effect of their recent exploit, were not aware of the deadly ap- 
proach. The Indians reached within ten steps of the houses, and, 
but for their accustomed Indian war cry, which they thrice re- 
peated, they could have surrounded every house, and after 
slaughtering its occupants have fired all. The terrific yells of 
the Indians brought the Adelantado and seven or eight others to 
the defence, while Indian arrows penetrated the palm-leaf roofs 
and wounded some of the inmates. The Adelantado, lance in 
hand, led his little band, and they fiercely attacked the Indians 



504 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

as they emerged from the woods. Soon the intrepid Mendez 
and others joined him, and with their swords the well-armed and 
shielded Spaniards made dreadful havoc among the naked war- 
riors. At this juncture a furious dog, possessed by the Span- 
iards, rushed out, and, by leaping and seizing the Indians in the 
face, rendered greater service than the Spanish swords. The 
Indians had never seen such an animal, and, affrighted by such 
a monster, they rushed frantically back to the woods. The rest 
of the Spaniards now came up from their various occupations to 
the aid of their countrymen. The Indians lost all hope, and 
they were put on their defence by the intrepidity of the Spanish, 
and could only discharge their weapons from the woods, which 
resounded with their yells. Spanish courage, skill, and arms 
carried the day against the savage and naked warriors of Ve- 
ragua. The struggle lasted three hours. The Indians left nine- 
teen of their warriors dead on the field, while they carried off 
large numbers of their wounded. The Spaniards had one killed 
and seven wounded, and among the wounded was the brave 
Adelantado, who received a lance-wound in his breast. 

The boat from the admiral's ship entered the river just as the 
fight was at its height. It was under the command of Captain 
Diego Tristan. He and his men took no part in the battle, re- 
maining silent spectators of the startling scene. He gave as his 
motive in not going to the relief of his countrymen, when ques- 
tioned and censured, the necessity of avoiding and preventing 
the struggling Spaniards, on seeing a boat approaching, from 
rushing to it to make their escape, overloading it, and thus caus- 
ing the death of all by drowning ; when, if left to their own 
desperate defence, their arms and valor would save them. And 
so it resulted. But Diego and his comrades on the admiral's 
boat were reserved for a more appalling struggle and a more 
consummate fate. He had been sent in the boat, with seven or 
eight rowers and three armed men, to obtain fresh water. The 
Spaniards on shore endeavored to persuade him to desist from 
going up the river, for if he went his fate seemed desperate ; but 
he answered that he did not fear the Indians, and he would at 
all risks perform the duty confided to him by the admiral. 
Scarcely had the boat proceeded a league from the settlement, 
when it was set upon by innumerable Indian canoes filled with 
infuriated warriors, yelling as they came out from the wooded 



ON COLUMBUS. 505 

shores, and the boat was soon svirrounded. The Spaniards, 
though few in number, might have put their assailants to flight 
by the terror of their fire-arms, if they had promptly discharged 
them ; but the suddenness of the attack and the appalHng yells 
and numbers of the Indians caused them to lose their presence 
of mind. Their Spanish shields were no protection against such 
swarms of assailants, and the showers of arrows at every side. 
It was in vain that Diego Tristan endeavored to sustain the 
courage of his men by word and example. He was repeatedly 
wounded, and finally fell dead from a lance which penetrated his 
eye. The rest of the Spaniards were slaughtered ; every Indian 
warrior struggled to be the instrument of his nation's venge- 
ance. The bodies of the Spaniards were cut to pieces. Only one 
man escaped, Juan de Noya, who in the confusion had fallen 
overboard, and by swimming under the water had made his 
escape and returned to the settlement to announce the disaster. 

The scene at the village can scarcely be imagined, much less 
described. The Spanish colonists, though successful in driving 
off their Indian assailants, were appalled at the ferocity and num- 
bers of their enemies. Instead of being humbled or frightened 
at the recent exploit of the Spaniards in seizing their chief and 
his family, their savage passions were intensified by revenge and 
hatred. How could a handful of men in a wilderness, thousands 
of miles away from home, subsist in the midst of countless ene- 
mies, whose country they had invaded, and whom they had 
goaded on to the fiercest consciousness of pride, injury, insult, 
and defiance ? At the Belen colon)^ all were in the most intense 
state of excitement and dismay, and nothing was talked of but 
the late assault of the Quibian and his warriors. It was in the 
midst of such tumult and consternation that Juan de Noya sudden- 
ly arrived in their midst and announced the appalling massacre of 
the Spaniards in the boat under Diego Tristan. Dismay was 
turned into a panic of the most frightful character. Terrific as 
was the account of Noya, the frightened colonists exaggerated 
in their dismay even this consummate disaster. A handful of 
men amid countless enemies, exasperated with hatred and re- 
venge, had now within a few hours twice attacked the Spaniards. 
The admiral, ignorant of their disasters, was about to sail away ; 
what but the most cruel death awaited them at every step ? 
There was one simultaneous abandonment of the settlement, 



5o6 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

and the panic-stricken crowd rushed to the Gallego for safet)^ 
from their enemies, and in the hope of putting out to sea. It 
was in vain that the clear voice and commanding coolness of 
the Adelantado endeavored to preserve order or calm the ex- 
citement. To their consternation, the men saw that it Avas im- 
possible for the caravel to overcome the ever-increasing sand- 
bar at the mouth of the river, and such was the violence of the 
sea without, that it was impossible to send out a boat with men 
to communicate their condition to the admiral. At this terrible 
moment a spectacle presented itself to their eyes which deprived 
them of every remnant of sense or thought : the bodies of Diego 
Tristan and his companions came floating past, and upon the 
mutilated masses of flesh and bones were crowded the birds of 
prey, fighting over the quivering limbs of the slain and piercing 
the air with their hideous cries, until there was little left on the 
water but floating clusters of bones from which the flesh was 
nearly all picked by the vultures. 

At this pitiable moment the infuriated Indians, rejoicing at 
their triumph over the Spaniards in the boat, having practically 
shown their intruders to be mortal and vulnerable, and gloated 
with Spanish blood so recently shed by them, burst forth from 
the woods suddenly with yells, and the sounds of shells and 
drums gave notice of hundreds more approaching. The Span- 
iards desperately rushed and brought together all the tables, 
chests, casks, and other articles they could find, and with these 
they hastily formed a bulwark, in the centre of which they 
huddled together with their arms, and at the two openings were 
stationed falconets. When the Indians rushed upon the little 
fort so suddenly constructed, the discharge of the two falconets 
struck terror in the assailants, and these, panic-stricken at the 
balls and the havoc they made, rushed back to the woods. Here 
they swarmed, and watched for the opportunity of killing the 
Spaniards if any should venture out for food or water. The 
continued discharges from the falconets, cutting the trees with 
the balls or wounding some of their number, still kept the Indians 
in check. 

The scene on board the admiral's ship was only different in 
degree. For ten days all on board had anxiously awaited the 
return of Diego Tristan, and each day's disappointment dis- 
mayed the admiral and his men beyond endurance. No means 



ON COLUMBUS. 50/ 

existed of communicating with the shore. At the end of this 
time, when all seemed to despair, an appalling- event occurred 
on the ship Santiago, which made it seem that all the powers of 
evil were leagued against them. 

The Indian prisoners on board the ship, the family of the Ve- 
raguan chief Quibian, who were held as hostages for the safety 
of the colony on shore, were every night shut up securel}^ below 
the deck. The hatch was too high to reach with their hands 
from below, and as the sailors were sleeping upon it, the guards 
deemed it unnecessary to chain it down on the outside for 
security. The prisoners saw their opportunity in the careless- 
ness of the men. They gathered together and piled under the 
hatch the stones used for ballast, and mounting upon these, the 
prisoners by one united effort forced the hatch, throwing off the 
sleeping sailors from it ; then, quickly springing on deck, they 
were in an instant in the water, and concealed by it, were making 
their escape to the shore. An immediate alarm, vigorously 
sounded on the ship, brought pursuers to the rescue, and resulted 
in the capture of most of the fugitives. The prisoners were now 
secured under hatches which were chained down, and a strong 
guard placed on duty. These desperate savages, more than 
ever aggrieved at not escaping with their more fortunate com- 
panions, and goaded on to despair, all resolved to die together. 
The men and women collected the cords in the hold ; all 
united in the sad tragedy, and strangled themselves. So intent 
were they in their desperate resolve, that while some stretched 
their feet and knees out on the bottom, because there was not 
space or height enough for them to hang, others with their own 
hands and feet drew and tightened the cords around their necks 
in order to ensure their own deaths rather than survive in exile, 
-separation, and slavery. Columbus and his companions were 
appalled at such a revolting spectacle. Were such to be the 
fruits of his great discovery ? Were such the early products of 
Christian civilization when brought in contact with pagan bar- 
barism ? Were not the hostages he had held for the safety of his 
own countrymen on shore either all dead or at liberty, by their 
own escape, to foment hostility against the Christians among 
their people ? What days of anguish on board the ships were 
those ten days of crushing suspense, during which no tidings 
had been received of Diego Tristan and his companions, or of 



508 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

the Adelantado and his colonists at Belen ! The cruelly treated 
cacique, the Quibian of Veragua, no longer restrained b}' the 
fear of reprisals, had the Spaniards on shore at his mercy. 

The intense anxiety of the admiral and all on board the ships 
led several sailors to offer to swim ashore, provided the boat 
Avas sent to carry them to the edge of the surf. They felt am- 
bitious to show that they were not inferior to the Indians, whom 
they had seen swim defiantly through the raging waves or under 
them the distance of a league, encountering deadly perils through 
natural love of liberty. Could not a Spaniard do as much for 
the safety of his countrymen ? The admiral gladly accepted the 
generous offer, and a boat load of sailors were rowed to the edge 
of the billows ; but the courage of these hardy sailors failed 
before the inevitable death that awaited their attempt to swim a 
league's distance through mountains of furious billows. One 
man, however, performed the marvellous and perilous under- 
taking, Pedro Ledesma, a sailor of powerful frame and sur- 
passing courage. It was long painfully doubtful whether he or 
the waves would conquer. Human courage and strength con- 
quered. Having reached the shore, the Spanish colonists, fren- 
zied with their perils and sufferings, pressed around him, and 
with agony told him all that occurred, and with hands joined 
together as a pledge resolved at every risk to fly the greater 
danger, from which they apprehended death at any moment. 
The voice of the Adelantado and his officers fell powerless on 
their ears ; they had found two canoes, and had a boat of their 
own. They desperately prepared to join the ships as soon as the 
violence of the sea permitted. They besought Ledesma to pre- 
sent their desperate petition to the admiral, that he would not in 
his charity abandon his countrymen and companions to their cer- 
tain fate ; that they would not and could not remain, as death was 
certain ; that if the admiral should refuse to receive them, they 
would call on Heaven to witness his cruelty ; that, in any event, 
they would put to sea in their own unseaworthy ship, preferring 
the perils of the sea to the certain revenge of man. The brave 
Ledesma ascertained all, and after receiving the instructions of 
Don Bartholomew, resolutely plunged into the sea, passed 
through the surging billows to the boat in waiting, reached the 
admiral's ship, and imparted to his chief, with hurried and con- 
fused words, the appalling intelligence of all he had seen and heard. 



ON COLUMBUS. 509 

Columbus was bowed down to the earth with grief at such 
tidings. No man ever suffered such sorrows as he. The con- 
viction that he was the chosen of God to perform the great mis- 
sion of opening the way to the conversion of all heathen nations 
to the Christian faith was ever present and uppermost in his 
mind, and yet whenever he seemed on the point of accomplish- 
ment he was cast down, and seemed to himself and to mankind 
the most unfortunate and abandoned of men. It was truly said 
that " in all the trouble and distress which Columbus had under- 
gone in his four voyages, he had never found himself in so des- 
perate a situation as when Ledesma brought his news." * Could 
he go away and leave his countrymen in the jaws of death ? Had 
those whom he had brought from home no claims upon his jus- 
tice, his sympathy, or his charity ? Was Don Bartholomew, the 
most devoted of brothers, to be abandoned to savages seeking 
his life ? How could he ever become reconciled to the death of 
Diego Tristan, still less to the relinquishment of his plan for 
planting a colony in the midst of unbounded wealth ? Knowing 
that it was impossible to send reinforcements to the colon}', as 
he was already short of men and sailors ; that to return to 
Belen himself with his ships and men would endanger all, with- 
out the world's ever knowing of his great discovery of the con- 
tinent and the gold of Veragua, and with no means of obtaining 
succor or reinforcements from home, he could see no course 
open to him, direful as it was, than to abandon the settlement 
for the present, to receive the forlorn hope upon his ships, and 
return with all to Spain. In the midst of such crushing disasters 
his sanguine mind still clung to the hope of again returning with 
a numerous colony and with sufficient ships, soldiers, and outfits 
of every kind to found anew the colony in Veragua, maintain it, 
reduce to subjection to the Spanish crown the warlike people 
and caciques of that fertile and gold-bearing region, and perhaps 
the entire continent. But in such a resolve as that of returning 
to Spain, he saw the impossibility of a boat's reaching the shore 
in the violent high sea prevailing ; his own ships were not sea- 
worthy, being honeycombed by the teredo or strained by the 
tempests, almost ready to fall to pieces. He was also short of 
sailors. The dangers of these stormy seas, and of the rocks near 



Mr. Brownson's translation of Tarducci's " Life of Columbus," vol. ii., p. 281. 



5IO OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

the coasts, rendered any effort to return to Spain scarcely less 
dangerous than the exposure on shore to massacre from the in- 
furiated Veraguans. In whichever direction his thoughts turned, 
he encountered difficulties and dangers the most appalling. Yet 
every moment's delay increased the dangers and disasters of the 
situation, for at any moment his noble brother and companions 
might be murdered on shore. His own strength and health were 
exhausted by age, disease, hardships, disasters, nightly vigils 
and labors, and his mind and body were wasted by his anxieties, 
sorrows, and misfortunes. All seemed lost, where worlds had 
lately been the prize. 

Tn this state of crushing perturbation of the admiral, his mind 
was racked with anguish and fever, despair and misfortune ; he 
dragged himself out of his sick-bed and rushed to the wheel- 
house and frantically called on the four winds to help him in his 
difificulties, while his ofificers stood by weeping for him and his 
cause. This state of mind was followed by a lethargic yet dis- 
turbed sleep, during which he experienced one of those visions 
in which he received what he regarded as a supernatural comfort 
and reassurance, and which he attributed to the divine inter- 
vention. His own words will conve}' most effectually the strange 
yet interesting condition of mind and body in which Columbus 
was plunged by his misfortunes : 

" Overcome by fatigue, I fell asleep groaning, and I heard a 
voice saying to me, ' Oh, thou fool ! slow to believe and to serve 
thy God, and God of all ! What more did He for Moses, or for 
His servant David, than He has done for thee ? From thy birth 
He has taken the greatest care of thee. When He saw thee 
come to a fitting age, He marvellously made thy name resound 
throughout the earth. The Indies, those wealthy regions of the 
world, He gave thee for thine own, and empowered thee to dis- 
pose of them according to thy pleasure. He delivered to thee 
the key of the barriers of the Ocean Sea, which was shut up with 
such mighty chains. Thy orders were obeyed in many countries, 
and among Christians thou didst acquire honorable fame. What 
more did He for the people of Israel, when He led them forth 
from Egypt ? Or even for David, whom, finding a shepherd, 
He made King of Judea ? Turn, then, to Him, and acknowledge 
thy error ; His mercy is infinite. Thy age shall be no impedi- 
ment to any great undertaking. He has many and vast inherit- 



ON COLUMBUS. 5ir 

ances yet in reserve. Abraham was above a hundred years 
when he begat Isaac ; and was Sarah youthful ? Thou urgest 
for succor despondingly. Answer ! who hath afflicted thee so 
much and so man}^ times — God, or the world ? The privileges 
and promises which God hath made to thee, He hath never 
broken ; neither hath He said, after having received the services, 
that His meaning was different, or was to be understood in a 
different sense ; nor did He inflict pain in order to show forth 
His power. He performs to the very letter. He fulfils all that 
He promises, and with increase. Is not this His custom ? See 
what thy Creator hath done for thee, and what He doeth for all. 
The present is the reward of the toils and perils thou hast en- 
dured in serving others. ' 

" In hearing this," writes Columbus, " I was as one almost 
dead, and had no power to reply to words so true ; I could only 
bewail my errors. Whoever it was that spoke to me, finished 
by saying : ' Fear not ! 'Have confidence. All these toils and 
tribulations are graven in marble, and it is not without cause.' " 

Various views have been expressed of this remarkable occur- 
rence in the life of Columbus ; but no one can fail to acknowl- 
edge the grand simplicity and noble good faith with which the 
statement is made by the author of these words. While some 
suppose that this narrative of a dream was an illy-disguised lesson 
intended to be applied to the king, and to secure the restitution 
of his rights, Mr. Irving joins the great mass of writers in reject- 
ing this view, saying : " He was too deeply imbued with awe of 
the Deity, and with reverence for his sovereign, to make use of 
such an artifice." And while attributing this strange yet simple 
and honest account to the characteristic faith of Columbus in the 
supernatural, to his belief that he was one divinely chosen for a 
great mission, and to the peculiar and perhaps unprecedented 
situation in which he was placed, Mr. Irving seems to enter the 
personality of this remarkable man, and see this dream partly 
from the admiral's standpoint, while yet wondering at such 
" striking illustrations of a character richly compounded of ex- 
traordinary and apparently contradictory elements."* He re- 
jects the view of the supernatural origin of the vision. Tarducci 



* Irving's " Columbus," vol. ii., p. 368 ; Mr. Brownson's translation of Tarducci's 
" Life of Columbus," vol. ii,, pp. 282-83. 



512 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

attributes this circumstance to the exalted views the admiral 
entertained of his mission, to his unfaltering and ever fresh senti- 
ments of religion, and to his facing then a situation which seemed 
to terminate all his hopes.* But the Count de Lorgues enthusi- 
astically announces his belief in the reality of the supernatural 
vision, and places the admiral in supernatural intercourse with 
the Deity. f Father Knight writes : " If visions are impossible, 
this was no vision. Comfort so opportune and so efficacious 
may easily have been something of a higher order than Irving, 
in his ' impatience of the supernatural,' supposes. The change 
produced could not have been more complete if the voice which 
Columbus heard was really, as he himself believed, a message 
from God," and spurns the thought that this was " the raving of 
a disordered mind." However it may be viewed, Columbus 
came out of his sleep full of consolation, courage, and persever- 
ance. Humboldf says : " His description of this vision is all the 
more pathetic for the bitter rebuke it contains, directed with 
bold frankness to powerful monarchs by a man unjustly perse- 
cuted." :{: 

On awakening from his sleep, though much encouraged, 
Columbus had for nine days longer to endure tempestuous 
weather. As soon as the storm subsided the provisions and 
other movable effects were brought off in boats from the Gallego 
to the fleet, but it was impossible to get the caravel across the 
bar of the river. Diego Mendez accomplished the onerous and 
difficult work of transferring the property to the ships with con- 
summate skill and prudence. The men were also carried in 
boats to the ships, and when all was accomplished Diego Mendez 
with five men remained on shore to the last, and they then returned 
together to join their companions on the ships. The jo}^ of the 
colonists on being rescued from that fatal shore was unbounded, 
and their return to the ships and their companions was hailed 
with delight on both sides. The admiral was so grateful to 
Mendez that he embraced him most affectionately again and 
again, and, as a token of his high appreciation of his services 
in great emergencies, raised him to the rank of captain, and 

* Tarducci's "Columbus," vol. ii., p. 2S4. 

f Dr. Barry's translation of Count de Lorgues' "Life of Columbus," p. 480; 
Father Knight's " Life of Columbus," p. 209. 

t Humboldt, " Voyage," etc., vol. iii., book 9, chap. 28. 



ON COLUMBUS. 513 

gave him the command of the ship which Diego Tristan had 
commanded before his cruel death at the hands of the Irniians. 

In the latter part of April — on Easter night, 1503 — Columbus 
with his three ships sailed from a coast which was bright with 
gold, but had proved the harbor of death. The grandeur of his 
conceptions and of his enterprise, in attempting at that early 
period the circumnavigation of the earth, entitles him to our 
admiration. Though the attempt failed, it solved the problem 
of the earth's geography on this point, and his theories Avere, in 
the main, based upon the most advanced thought and study on 
the shape and structure of our planet. Had he been provided 
with ships and equipments in keeping with the power and gran- 
deur of the Spanish nation, and of the importance of the enter- 
prise, the flag of Spain would have floated, under Columbus, 
over empires, and on the waters of the Pacific Ocean. His spirit 
of intelligent enterprise and adventure would never have rested 
short of such results. 

His intention was to sail for Hispaniola, repair his ships, obtain 
provisions, and then sail for Spain ; but when his crews saw him 
sailing along the coast eastwardly instead of northwardly, in the 
direct route to Hispaniola, their surprise was great, and they 
murmured at his attempting so long a voyage without adequate 
provisions and with ships that were strained and worm-eaten. 
The Count de Lorgues construes the action of Columbus as 
another and final attempt to accomplish the discovery of the 
interoceanic passage and the circumnavigation of the globe ; but 
this view is not tenable in face of his scanty provisions and 
the unseaworthy condition of the ships, and is not supported by 
his biographers or by historians generally. On the contrary, he 
and his brother had made so accurate a study of those waters 
and of their peculiar currents, that they knew it was necessary 
to gain a considerable distance to the east before attempting to 
cross the sea intervening between them and Hispaniola, in order 
to avoid being carried away and far below their destined port by 
the strong westerl}^ currents prevailing in those waters. It is 
also conjectured that the admiral, after having experienced the 
disposition of his contemporaries to avail themselves of his dis- 
coveries and charts, and appropriate and claim for themselves re- 
sults after he had discovered and pointed out the way, was deter- 
mined now to foil such efforts by keeping to himself all knowledge 



514 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

of the route to the opulent regions and gold-mines of Veragua. 
Hence he disregarded the murmurs of his pilots and seamen, and 
kept his own course. Violent disputes arose among the pilots as 
to the proper route to take, and Columbus, in order to maintain 
his authority and decide for himself so important a question, in 
which opinions were so divided, seized all the marine charts in 
the possession of the pilots. It seems illogical for so eminent a 
writer as Humboldt to accuse Columbus in this of an abuse of 
power. How could discipline or obedience be maintained in so 
perilous or so important a service in which Columbus was then 
engaged, if the pilots were permitted to indulge in violent and 
wordy altercations as to the course to be followed ? These very 
charts were the basis of the disputes, and their seizure was neces- 
sary for the maintenance of an authority essential to the safety 
of all. Not only this act, but also the following statement of 
Columbus in his report to the Spanish sovereigns, was rendered 
necessary by the treachery and bad faith which he had experi- 
enced. If, while his proposals were rejected by Portugal, the 
Portuguese King treacherously sent out an expedition to rob 
him of his discovery, and now, after he had achieved it, King 
Ferdinand had sent another governor to supersede him, and he 
was not permitted even to take shelter from a storm in the very 
harbor he had estabhshed, he was justified in protecting himself 
and in frankly declaring his purpose. " The pilots may tell the 
position of Veragua if they know it ; I maintain that they can 
give no other description than this : ' We have been in certain 
countries where there is great quantity of gold,' and that they 
can certify to ; but they are ignorant of the way to return thither ; 
to go there again, they would have to discover it anew. " Arriv- 
ing at Puerto Bello, he was compelled to abandon the third 
caravel, the Vizcaina, on account of her sinking condition, and 
even here his most necessary acts, as, on all former occasions, 
taken for the safety of all, were criticised. The crew of the 
abandoned ship were distributed between the other two, and 
these were worm-eaten and too dangerous to sail in. Columbus 
continued his easterly course as far as Port Retrete, discovered 
the Mulata Islands, and went ten leagues beyond the entrance 
to the Gulf of Darien, and several leagues beyond his former 
course, apparently in search of the strait, thus giving color to 
the view of the Count de Lorgues, that even now, with such 



ON COLUMBUS. 515 

odds against him, he was heroically seeking again the solution 
of his great geographical and commercial problem, the inspiring 
object of his fourth and last voyage. But here he called a coun- 
cil of the captains and pilots, and upon their unanimous opinion 
against the further search for the strait, he turned his course on 
May ist to the north, and for Hispaniola. Here again the east 
winds and currents swept the ships greatly to the west ; the 
admiral, with rare seamanship and against the remonstrances of 
his pilots, kept close to the wind, for he assured them they would 
be carried west of Hispaniola, while they asserted the contrar3\ 
On May loth the ships passed in sight of the Caymans, two small 
islands northwest of Hispaniola, which he called Tortugas, on 
account of the multitude of tortoises seen around them. On the 
1 2th he found himself thirty leagues from that place, and among 
a group of islands south of Cuba and the Queen's Gardens, and 
with all his precautions the ships were eight or nine degrees 
west of San Domingo. 

The situation of Columbus was growing more perilous every 
moment, for the sailors were kept at the pumps day and night, 
while all they had to sustain their stomachs was a morsel of 
musty biscuit, oil, and vinegar. It was difficult to keep the 
water from gaining on the ships, and here at their first anchorage, 
and at midnight, the leaking ships were assailed by so vio- 
lent a storm that Columbus compared it to the end of the world. 
Three of their anchors were lost, the two ships were thrown 
against each other with such violence as to shatter the bow of 
one and the stern of the other, and it seemed like a miracle that 
the admiral's ship was not lost, with the cable of her only re- 
maining anchor reduced to mere thread by friction on the rocks, 
when the dawn enabled them to replace it with another. For 
six days and nights the ships were in constant peril from the 
storm, all the cables were lost, the water was pouring in through 
worm-eaten holes, and the sailors were exhausted and discour- 
aged. With great struggling against adverse winds and cur- 
rents the ships reached Cape Cruz, in the island of Cuba, and 
anchored near an Indian village in the province of Macaca, 
where Columbus had touched on his voyage in 1494. Here they 
rested and obtained some provisions. Another effort to reach 
Hispaniola was defeated by adverse winds and currents, and the 
tempest was renewed. It was a struggle between life and death ; 



5l6 ■ OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

it was not enough to keep the pumps working- day and night ;' 
buckets, kettles, and pitchers were also brought into the same 
desperate service. On one of the ships the water had reached 
the deck. The dismal expedient of running the ships ashore, per- 
haps to fall victims to hostile Indians, was forced upon them, but 
even here a first attempt was unsuccessful at Dry Harbor, as 
there were neither natives to give them food nor water to refresh 
them. Forced again to sail, they finally reached the harbor in 
the island of Jamaica which in his first voyage the admiral had dis- 
covered and named Santa Gloria, and here the sinking ships were 
run upon the strand. This port is now known by the name of 
the admiral himself, the Bay of Don Cristobal. The ships were 
wrecks, little more than their frames remaining ; like Shake- 
speare's " rotten carcass of a boat," they were tied together on 
the beach, a bow-shot from shore, thus forming a sort of refuge 
for the admiral and his companions. The water reached nearly 
to the decks of both wrecks. Without a roof or a home on the 
land, their skeleton ships were at once their homes and their 
barracks at the water's edge — in fact, prisons on a barbarous 
shore. The wrecks were put in a state of defence, and barracks 
thatched with straw were erected on deck, stern and forecastle. 
The strictest discipline was proclaimed and enforced, the men 
were kept busy, and visits to shore without permission were for- 
bidden. Such measures were necessary, for the admiral knew 
too well that the men were prone to abuse and degrade the 
natives, even when they themselves were reduced to the lowest 
point of disaster, and in danger thereby of increasing their mis- 
fortunes. It was necessary now more than ever to gain the good 
will of the natives in order to secure food, and to avoid giving 
offence. They were at the mercy of the natives. A firebrand 
at night from hostile or offended Indians would consume their 
roofs and barracks to the water's edge, and what would be their 
helpless condition when in the power of countless enemies ? 

" All — all the storm 

Devour'd ; and now, o'er his late envied fortune, 

The dolphins bound and wat'ry mountains roar, 

Triumphant in his ruin." 

— Young's " Revenge." 

In the most overwhelming misfortunes mitigating circum- 
stances are hopefully regarded as positive good. The admiral 



ON COLUMBUS. 51/ 

was not wholly among strangers, for he had visited this spot 
before ; the island was populous, near by was the village of 
Maima, whose inhabitants hastened to bring provisions to the 
stranded ships, quite happy in receiving trifles in return. In 
order to maintain peace with his neighbors, the Indians, fairness 
of dealing, and a just division of the food among his famished 
men, Columbus established certain necessary measures and regu- 
lations, and appointed two of his officers to superintend. All 
was at first harmonious, but the Indians never provided much 
even for themselves in advance, and the provisions in their 
cabins soon became exhausted. Famine seemed at the very bar- 
racks of the Spaniards. In this emergency the ever-faithful 
Diego Mendez volunteered to seek and apply measures of relief. 
Setting out with three others, he visited successively the Indian 
chiefs. He was not only received and treated with hospitality, 
but with three caciques whom he visited he made the most sat- 
isfactory arrangements for supplies of food, and in each case he 
sent one of his three companions to apprise the admiral of the 
good results of his important mission. Left now alone, he con- 
tinued his journey to the eastern end of the island, and made 
friends of several powerful caciques. From the last he pur- 
chased an excellent canoe, and with six Indians he returned 
along the coast to the ships, and was received with triumph and 
gratitude by the admiral and all his countrymen. His canoe was 
loaded with the provisions he had purchased. The supply was 
continued by the daily arrival of Indians well loaded, and the 
traffic was mutually satisfactory. 

Columbus now became anxious for his deliverance from this 
helpless and dangerous situation, and still more anxious to secure 
to his country and the world the knowledge and the fruits of his 
recent discoveries. Cut off from Hispaniola by forty leagues of 
sea, and that sea subject to capricious currents and winds, with 
no boat, his ships wrecked, and without human hope of commu- 
nication with the rest of the world, the possibility of perishing 
in this remote wilderness, deprived of the consolations of relig- 
ion, with no prospect of realizing the results of his labors and 
sacrifices, and with still less hope of being able to secure the 
deliverance of the Holy Sepulchre to Christendom, he found 
himself in " a disheartening position, because there was no outlet 



5lS OLD AND NEW I-IGHTS 

from it." * " What was to become of them, and how were they 
to get away from the island ?" asks the learned Tarducci. Trust- 
ing that God would provide him with the means of communica- 
tion, Columbus, ever hopeful and fruitful in resources, wrote to 
the Spanish sovereigns a detailed account of his momentous voy- 
age, the discovery of the gold regions of Veragua, and his pres- 
ent misfortunes, and he besought their Majesties to send a ship 
to his relief. This remarkable and now famous letter was dated 
July 7th, 1503. 

The writings of Columbus, his letters, the living communica- 
tions of his feelings to his sovereigns or to his friends present a 
candid reflection of the character of the man. This letter, or 
rather report to the Spanish sovereigns, written by Columbus 
from his stranded ships on the coast of Jamaica, is justly re- 
garded as one of the most important documents of his career. 
Remaining for centuries forgotten and unnoticed, although it 
had been printed in Spain, it was again brought to light about the 
year 1822, when the historical and literary world was aroused by 
its publication, and the learned societies of Venice, Bassano, 
Pisa, Florence, Genoa, Milan, Pavia, Rome, and Paris were elec- 
trified by its contents, and the learned librarian Morelli, of 
Venice, published it with copious notes of his own under the 
title of " Littera Rarissima." Valuable on account of its geo- 
graphical and scientific discoveries and thoughtful reflections, it 
derives a special interest from the critical and desperate circum- 
stances under which it was written. Its significant and ringing 
notes rise like a voice of indignant and just appeal from the 
depths of the wilderness, and it has well been said that no other 
man could have written such a letter. Its method of transmis- 
sion was most extraordinary. The classic language of our own 
Irving thus describes the letter of Columbus from Jamaica : 
" Nothinof is more characteristic of Columbus than his earnest, 
artless, eloquent, and at times almost incoherent letters. What 
an instance of soaring enthusiasm and irrepressible enterprise is 
here exhibited ! At the time that he was indulging in these 
visions, and proposing new and romantic enterprises, he was 
broken down by age and infirmities, racked by pain, confined to 



* Count de Lorgues' " Columbus," Dr. Barry's translation, p. 486 ; Tarducci's 
" Columbus," Brownson's translation, vol. ii., p. 292. 



ON COLUMBUS. 519 

his bed, and shut up in a wreck on the coast of a remote and 
savage island. No stronger picture can be given of his situation 
than that which follows this transient glow of excitement ; when, 
with one of his sudden transitions of thought, he awakens, as it 
M'ere, to his actual condition." Graphic as is this passage from 
the pen of Washington Irving, he seems to lose sight of the fact 
that Columbus was in his character and life always an entirety ; 
in the most disastrous positions in which he might be placed, he 
never gave himself up wholly and exclusively to the sorrow of 
the occasion or to the saddening contemplation of his perils. 
These formed a part only of his thoughts and sensations, but 
never to the exclusion of other and brighter and more successful 
epochs and aspirations of his life, and more especially of the yet 
unaccomplished but never abandoned aspirations of his soul, and 
plans of future grandeur and usefulness. Hence we see mingled 
in the same letter a prayer for a ship to be sent for his rescue 
from destruction, and the announcement of his ever-cherished 
plan for the relief of the Holy Sepulchre. He sues at one and 
the same time for his life and for the restitution of his ofBces, 
titles, revenues, and estates. It is extraordinary that in such 
extremities the human mind was capable of grasping the grandest 
interests of mankind, and at the same moment detailing the most 
minute particulars of his own and his companions' affairs, even 
to the demand for the payment of the arrears of pay due to his 
crews. 

After relating the unparalleled labors, hardships, and perils of 
his fourth voyage, he discloses the existence of the ocean beyond 
the lands he had discovered, narrates the discovery of the con- 
tinent, the gold regions of Veragua, and, as if especially address- 
ing himself to the king, he writes, ' ' I make more of the scale and 
of the gold mines of this country than of all that has been done 
in the Indies." He makes a direct appeal for the payment of 
the back pay of his men, who had followed him through every 
peril, and would, on their return to Spain, announce the grandest 
results of Spanish discoveries. While those who had abandoned 
his great work, undertaken for the honor of Spain, and had 
culumniated the administration of the discoverer of the new 
world, were rewarded with offices, which he boldly denounces 
as a scandal, the discoverer and his companions are left to perish 
in a savage land. He recalls by a delicate but significant and 



520 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

unmistakable allusion the unaccomplished and not attempted 
delivery of the Holy Sepulchre, when he says, " The other affair, 
the most important one, remains where it was, calling with out- 
stretched arms ! It has been passed over as foreign, even to this 
hour !" Who could not see in this metaphor what Columbus 
saw with the eyes of his soul, the Saviour extending forth His 
arms from the Holy Sepulchre in supplication for deliverance 
from the hands of tlie infidels ? Even when he claims, with 
severe justice, the restitution of his propert}', his honors, his 
dignities, his offices and estates, feeling ever present in his heart 
the desire to devote them to the deliverance of the Holy Sepul- 
chre, he demands it as something due to God Himself, and he 
exclaims to the sovereigns, "It is just to give to God what 
belongs to Him." And again, " In acting thus your Highnesses 
will show a high degree of virtue, and will leave Spain a grand 
example and a glorious memorj^ as just and grateful princes." 
And again he sa3^s, "Jerusalem and Mount Zion are to be re- 
built by the hand of a Christian. Who is he to be ? God, by 
the mouth of the prophet, in the fourteenth psalm declares it. 
The Abbot Joachim says he is to come out of Spain." He ap- 
peals to the king and queen in behalf of the new countries he had 
given to Spain, ' ' This is not a child, to be abandoned to a step- 
mother. I never think of Hispaniola and Paria without weep- 
ing. Their case is desperate and past cure. I hope their ex- 
ample may cause this region to be treated in a different manner." 
The admiral again alludes to the Grand Khan, whose dominions 
he still asserts he had approached, and reminds the Catholic 
sovereigns that that potentate had requested learned and zealous 
missionaries to be sent to instruct him and his subjects in the 
Christian faith. 

Heretofore, in this great epic composition, the admiral had 
spoken mostly of other interests, or, in alluding to himself, to 
his public relations to the crown ; but now the injustice he had 
sustained and the royal ingratitude, the tragic character of his 
misfortunes, and the very romance of his disasters, swell up in 
his soul, and he seems to place his cause before all posterity in 
placing it before his sovereigns. In language which reads 
like that of the weeping prophets of Judea, like the lamentations 
of ancient seers, he exclaims : " Hitherto I have wept for others ; 
but now, have pity upon me, Heaven, and weep for me, O earth I 



ON COLUMBUS. $21 

In my temporal concerns, without a farthing to offer for a mass ; 
cast away here in the Indies ; surrounded by cruel and hostile 
savages ; isolated, infirm, expecting each day will be my last ; 
in spiritual concerns separated from the holy sacraments of the 
Church, so that my soul, if parted here from my body, must be 
forever lost ! Weep for me, whoever has charity, truth, and 
justice ! I came not on this voyage to gain honor or estate, that 
is most certain, for all hope of the kind was already dead within 
me. I came to serve your Majesties with a sound intention and 
an honest zeal, and I speak no falsehood. If it should please 
God to deliver me hence, I humbly supplicate your Majesties to 
permit me to repair to Rome and perform other pilgrimages." 

Such a letter is truly, as Humboldt says, an initiation into 
"the inward struggles of the great soul of Columbus."* But 
that such a document should have been written by Columbus to 
the sovereigns of Spain, under circumstances which to all were 
acknowledged to exclude absolutely all possibility of transmitting 
it to Spain, is almost as wonderful a fact as the contents of 
the letter itself. How even would it be possible to communi- 
cate to Ovando at San Domingo his forlorn condition, and ask 
for transportation to Hispaniola and to Spain ? But Columbus 
had faith. The following conversation and the result of it ex- 
hibit the character of Columbus in the direst extremities, reflected 
in the noble achievement of one of his faithful companions. He 
knew that his only chance of communication with San Domingo 
lay in the fruitful genius, ardent loyalty, and undaunted bravery 
of Diego Mendez, which had never failed him. Calling, there- 
fore, that brave and gifted mariner and soldier to his side, the 
admiral made no direct allusion to Mendez ; but the following 
conversation, as related by Mendez himself, occurred : 

" Diego Mendez, my son," said Columbus, "of all that are 
here, only you and I understand the great peril in which we are 
placed. We are few in number, while these savage Indians are 
many, and fickle and irritable by nature. On the least provoca- 
tion, on a mere suspicion or caprice, they may at any moment 
become enemies, and can easily throw firebrands on our ships 
from the shore and consume us in our straw-thatched barracks. 
The arrangement which you made with them for provisions, and 



" Histoire de la Geographic du Nouveau Continent," torn, iii., § ii. 



522 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

which at present they keep so faithfully, may not satisfy them 
to-morrow, and they may withhold their assistance ; and with- 
out the means of compelling them we shall be entirely at their 
pleasure. I have thought of a way of escaping from this danger, 
but I desire to hear your opinion first. It is that some one 
should venture to pass over to Hispaniola in the canoe you 
bought, and procure a ship to take us out of our perilous posi- 
tion. Now, tell me your opinion." 

The bold and gallant Mendez replied : " I see clearly, sir, the 
danger we are in, and it is much greater than any one could 
imagine. As to passing from this island to Hispaniola in so 
small and frail a boat as this canoe, I believe is not only very 
difficult, but even impossible ; for I do not know who would 
venture on such evident danger as crossing a gulf forty leagues 
between the islands, when the sea is so boisterous." 

The dangers and difficulties of such an adventure can more 
readily be appreciated, when so fearless and adventurous a hero 
as Diego Mendez could not imagine how or by whom it was to 
be undertaken or accomplished. The expressive countenance, 
the very silence of Columbus, his noble and considerate bearing — 
all told the heroic Mendez that the admiral could think of no one 
else but himself as the man for this appalling yet not impossible 
task. Diego's generous ardor was equal to the admiral's trust, 
and, prompted by the exalted sentiment within, he electrified 
his superior by the following magnanimous and immediate reply : 

" Sir, I have often risked my life to save you and all those 
who are here, and God has preserved me in a miraculous manner. 
There have not been wanting maligners of my conduct, who say 
that your lordship entrusts to me all the affairs in which honor 
is to be gained, while there are others among them who would 
execute them as successfully as I. For this reason, it seems fair, 
sir. that you should summ.on all the rest, and propose to them 
this enterprise, to see if any of them are willing to undertake it, 
which I greatly doubt. If they all decline, I will then risk my 
life for your service, as I have often done." 

The admiral's plan was now sure of execution, and so mani- 
festly wise and prudent was the proposal of Mendez, that it was 
immediately carried into effect, and with anticipated result. All 
the officers thus summoned to hear the admiral's proposition, 
with one voice declared it impossible. It was then that Diego 



ON COLUMBUS. 523 

Mendez modestly but gallantl}' stepped forward, and said : 
" Sir, I have but one life to lose, yet I am willing to venture it 
for your service and for the good of al'l here present, and I trust 
that God, our Lord, viewing the intention by which I am di- 
rected, will preserve me as He has so often done before." * The 
admiral arose and embraced the noble and generous Diego with 
every manifestation and expression of gratitude and love, saying 
that he knew how Mendez could be depended upon for the exe- 
cution of this most perilous and difficult affair, and expressed his 
confidence in the protection of God over him. 

With the gallant Mendez it was no sooner said than executed. 
He prepared his Indian canoe with keel, boards along her sides and 
stern to guard against the sea, tarred it well, put in a mast, a 
sail and provisions, and hopefully and bravely departed on his 
miniature ship. A brave Spaniard, whose name it would be a 
pleasure to the historian to record if known, volunteered for the 
voyage, and six Indians accompanied him. It was the dangers 
■on land that proved the defeat of this heroic attempt ; for after 
having reached the point in Jamaica nearest Hispaniola, and 
having escaped capture by a flotilla of Indian canoes, he and his 
canoe were captured by the natives, who resolved to put him 
and his companions to death and divide the plunder. A quarrel 
among his captors and his own ready address enabled him, in 
the very presence of the Indians, who were playing a game of 
chance to decide the distribution of the booty, to escape by 
jumping from tree to tree until he reached the shore ; and here, 
stepping into his canoe, he reached the admiral's barracks in 
safety. It is not known what became of his Spanish companion. 
He immediately and undauntedly offered to set out again on his 
perilous voyage, provided he was accompanied by a sufficient 
number of men to protect him from the natives until he should 
have put out to sea. The bravery of Diego Mendez now became 
contagious. Many now offered to accompany him on the ex- 
pedition, which was thereupon increased to two canoes, one 
under the command of Diego Mendez, the other under that of 
Bartholomew Fiesco, who was formerly captain of the Vizcaina, 
a gentleman of Genoa, devoted to Columbus, and a man of high 



* Mr. Brovvnson's translation of Tarducci's " Life of Columbus," vol. ii., pp. 293, 



524 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

character and courage. Each of these brave captains was accom- 
panied by si's Spaniards, and each had ten Indians to act as oars- 
men. The two canoes were to keep company until they reached 
Hispaniola, when Fiesco was to repeat the perilous voyage in 
returning to relieve the anxiety of the admiral as to the safe 
arrival of Mendez, while the latter was instructed to proceed 
overland to San Domingo and deliver to Ovando a letter request- 
ing that a ship be sent immediately to bring him and his com- 
panions to Hispaniola, and thence to proceed to Spain and de- 
liver to Ferdinand and Isabella the important dispatches the 
admiral had addressed to them. 

With o^ood heart the bold deliverers started on their mission 

o 

of humanity. The canoes were provisioned with cassava bread 
and the meat of utias, the men wore sword and buckler, the 
Adelantado escorted them to the end of the island with a suffi- 
cient force for their protection, and after waiting three days for 
a favorable sea, the generous captains passed out to sea amid the 
prayers of all for their safety. The Adelantado vigilantly and 
tenderly watched the receding canoes from the shore, until at 
evening they faded from sight, when he commenced his march 
back to the ships, visiting the friendly caciques on the way and 
arranging for continuing the supplies. 

While his hopes and prayers followed his friends in their noble 
expedition, Columbus was most solicitous for the sick among his 
little colony or garrison in the wrecks, and for the suppl}' of 
food for all, while he was himself prostrated on his bed of sick- 
ness, a prey to the most excruciating sufferings. Well might he 
now hope, however, that relief was not far distant. Yet were 
there ever such misfortunes, such treacheries, such splendid 
hopes dimmed by adversities, such unjust oppositions, such tor- 
menting physical maladies, such betrayals, such revolts, such 
ingratitude as he had to meet and bear ? Shipwrecked on a 
savage shore, in a remote and unexplored part of the new world, 
dependent on the caprice of the Indians for his daily food, pros- 
trated with disease, spent with labor and vigils, enfeebled by 
age, and cut off from all assistance, surely nothing worse could 
come even to such a man of sorrows and misfortune ! But a 
worse sorrow awaited the prostrated and sick but ever brave 
admiral, now the commander of two wretched and wrecked 
hulks, the remnants of the unsea worthy fleet with which he had 



ON COLUMBUS. 525 

been grudgingly supplied by Ferdinand and Fonseca for his 
fourth voyage — worse, as Mr. Irving says, " than storm or ship- 
wreck, or bodily anguish, or the violence of savage hordes — the 
perfidy of those in whom he confided." Such was the mutiny 
of the Porras brothers. 

Scarcely had the brave canoes of Mendez and Fiesco departed 
amid hopes and prayers, when a reaction set in among the ship- 
wrecked colony. Recent labors, exposures, and fastings had been 
supplemented by the unhealthy climate and the unaccustomed 
vegetable diet suppKed by the natives as causes of sickness, 
and these were soon followed by depression of spirits, gloomy 
forebodings, and despondency. The vain watchings for the 
return of Fiesco's canoe had increased the mental discontent, 
and this had ripened into open expressions of mutiny. While 
the chief, spent with their common sufferings and hardships, was 
doing all for their preservation and deliverance, was bearing 
with them the same adversities and meeting the same fate, they 
accused him of being the cause of their misfortunes, instead of 
extending to him a manly sympathy and support. In such a 
state of things the aimless clamor of the crowd was rendered 
formidable by the assumed leadership of two officers, whom the 
admiral had favored far beyond their deserts or capacities in 
order to please Morales, the royal treasurer, and who had proved 
themselves ungrateful and insolent. Columbus had met with 
many such official ruffians. These two officers were Francisco 
de Porras, whom he had appointed captain of one of the caravels, 
and his brother Diego, for whom he had obtained the appoint- 
ment of notary and accountant-general of the expedition. Colum- 
bus had extended to them great leniency in simply reprimanding 
them for their past insolence instead of dismissal or suspension. 
To such weak and treacherous creatures the mild reprimand was 
an insult, and they became the enemies of their benefactor. 

Availing themselves of the mutinous spirit of the crews, these 
brothers did all in their power to foment an open mutiny by 
mingling among them and spreading all kinds of slanders and 
insinuations and reports against the admiral. They represented 
the expedition of Mendez and Fiesco as a sham, not sent for the 
deliverance of the people, but for his own private advantage and 
purposes ; it was not intended that Fiesco should return ; the 
admiral was deceiving them with hopes of deliverance, whereas 



526 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

he was not at liberty himself to return to Hispaniola or Spain, for 
he had been banished from Spain, and refused shelter at San 
Domingo even from a storm ; and that Jamaica, where he was 
content to stay, was as good a place of exile for him as any 
other. Fiesco had not returned because he was so instructed. 
Why should so many Spaniards be sacrificed on account of one 
man, and he a foreigner ? Why should they not attempt their 
own deliverance by sailing in the Indian canoes for Hispaniola ? 
Would they not be welcomed the more for leaving the hated 
admiral behind in his exile ? Was not Ovando his enemy, as 
were also Fonseca and even Ferdinand his enemies ? Morales, 
the treasurer, would favor their cause in Spain, as Fonseca had 
favored that of Roldan and the rebels ; and had not these re- 
ceived pardon and emoluments, while Columbus had been de- 
prived of his command and most of his concessions ? The king 
and queen were at heart anxious to get rid of him, and could 
easily be induced to strip of every privilege the man they had 
already exiled. 

The mutinous men rallied around these unworthy sowers of 
sedition ; the only two whose names are known or who had any 
repute were Juan Sanchez, the pilot who had by his carelessness 
allowed the cacique, the Quibian, to escape from his grasp, and 
Pedro Ledesma, the sailor who had swum ashore in the storm 
at the river Belen to obtain tidings of the unfortunate colony. 
With such leaders the mutiny openly broke out, notwithstanding 
the kind and sympathetic words and assurances of the admiral 
that relief would soon arrive. 

It was on January 2d, 1504, as the admiral lay on his couch 
writhing with the pains of gout, that Francisco de Porras rushed 
into his cabin, with excited look and violent voice, and scarcely 
could the suffering admiral lift himself on his elbows, when the 
mutineer coarsely exclaimed : " Sir, why are you unwilling to 
return to Castile, but keep us all perishing here ?" Columbus 
possessed extraordinary self-control, and on this occasion he 
exerted it ; for though his astonishment could not have been 
greater if, as he himself said, " the rays of the sun should emit 
darkness," he calmly and amiably assured the rebel that he, too, 
was most anxious to return to Castile, more so than any other, 
for his own sake as well as for the sake of those whom God and 
the sovereigns had entrusted to him. But what could be done 



ON COLUMBUS. $2/ 

until the canoe had returned from Hispaniola ? and as he had so 
often assembled the captains and principal men of the expedition 
in council on important occasions, so now, if Porras had any 
proposition to make, he would summon them in council again to 
consider it. To this fair and considerate statement Porras re- 
plied with arrogance, " There is no use for so many words, but 
embark at once, or stay in God's name ;" and turning his back 
upon the admiral, he said, " For my part, 1 am for Castile ; let 
those who choose follow me." At this concerted signal all the 
conspirators present, with one voice, shouted, " I ! II I !" and 
springing up simultaneously, they seized possession of the fore- 
castles and cabins. Some cried out, ' ' To Castile ! To Cas- 
tile ! !" while others shouted, " Kill them ! Kill them ! !" 

At the noise and bustle of this outbreak, so open, so violent, 
so flagrant, the admiral struggled from his couch to reach the 
scene and quiet the insurgents by persuasion, while the Adelan- 
tado, seizing his lance, rushed to the defence of his brother and 
his friends, whose lives were threatened. It was fortunate for 
the whole community that the more prudent and calmer officers 
induced each to retire, while they themselves persuaded the 
insurgents to withdraw from the wrecks. Seizing the ten canoes 
which the admiral had purchased, and which jvere tied to the 
ships, the insurgents and others now joining them, moved at the 
moment with the alluring hope of reaching home, fort3^-eight in 
number, deserted the admiral, and collecting hastily their effects, 
jumped into the canoes, elated with even the phantom hope of 
reaching Castile. Those that remained were the sick and a few 
faithful and loyal friends of the admiral. Moved by the misfor- 
tunes of the former and the fidelity of the latter, the admiral had 
himself carried to the bedsides of the sick to comfort them, and 
he embraced the others with every token of affection. He ap- 
pealed to all to place their trust in God, and assured them of the 
speedy arrival of relief. He, the most infirm and ill of all, visited 
the sick every day. His cheering words and his sedulous atten- 
tions inspired the sick with hope and courage, and finally re- 
stored all to health, energy, and cheerfulness. It was on such 
occasions as this that the admiral's qualities shone in a charac- 
teristic light. 

The insurgents, led on by the two brothers Porras, coursed 
with their canoes to the east, following the direction along the 



528 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

shore taken by Mendez and Fiesco ; arrived and landed at the 
end of the island and commenced robbing the Indians and cast- 
ing the blame of their outrages on Columbus, by whose orders 
they professed to act, referring their victims to him for pay, and 
telling them to kill him if he did not pay them, representing him 
as the worst enemy of the Indians, and that he would enslave and 
murder them, as he had done with the natives of other islands, 
unless they should kill him and save themselves. These mis- 
creants, as soon as the sea grew calmer, embarked in their 
canoes to cross the sea to Hispaniola, taking a number of the 
natives to work at the oars. They were soon driven back by 
the boisterous sea, having thrown all overboard except their 
arms and a few provisions. Even the poor Indians were forced 
into the sea, and when they swam back to save themselves by 
holding to the canoes, they were either murdered with the 
swords of the Spaniards or forced to relax their hold and sink to 
the bottom. Eighteen of these miserable natives were thus 
either murdered or drowned, for the best of the swimmers gave 
out and sank. 

Returning to the shore, these outlaws were divided as to what 
course to pursue. They robbed the Indians unmercifully, and 
filled the land with terrors. Three times they attempted to cross 
the sea in their canoes, and were each time driven back. Finally, 
abandoning all further attempts, they overran the land with 
rapine and outrage. The task of feeding the admiral's com- 
panions having become onerous to the Indians, the European 
trinkets given in return having lost their novelty, the desertion 
of so many of the admiral's men, and the malicious instigations 
of the rebels, resulted in the indifference or refusal of the Indians 
to bring in sufficient food for the Spaniards at the wrecks. To 
use force with them was now out of the question, and starvation 
stared the admiral and his friends in the face. Though wracked 
with bodily pain and crushed with repeated misfortunes, Colum- 
bus on his sick-bed devised an ingenious method of inducing the 
Indians to renew their supplies — one characteristic of himself, and 
fortunately successful. Remembering there would be an eclipse 
of the moon on the third da}^ and knowing how the Indians 
regarded all the phenomena of nature with superstitious awe, he 
availed himself of the opportunity by inviting the Indians to 
assemble at a feast. He then spoke to the assembled chiefs and 



ON COLUMBUS. 529 

natives of the God of the Christians, of His power, His friend- 
ship for good Christians, as manifested by His letting Mendez 
and Fiesco reach Hispaniola in frail canoes, and His anger 
against bad men, as manifested by His not permitting the Porras 
brothers and their guilty followers to do the same ; that He 
was angr}', too, at the Indians for refusing to bring provisions 
to the good Spaniards, as they had promised, and would punish 
them with famine and pestilence ; and as proof of His just 
intention to punish them. He would show them an evident proof 
in the heavens, so that they might know that the punishment 
came from God. That this portentous sign would be seen by 
them all and by all the world, and consist in the appearance of 
the moon that night, which would come forth angry and in- 
flamed, in proof of the anger of God and the truth of what he, 
the admiral, now said to them. 

While some of the Indians were moved to fear, others treated 
the threat as idle ; but when the predictions of the admiral were 
fulfilled that night by the eclipse of the moon, the Indians were 
terrified, and in order to ward off the anger of the Christians' 
God, they ran in crowds to the wrecks loaded with provisions, 
begging the admiral's intercession for their pardon, and promis- 
ing in return to supply him and his companions with all the food 
they needed. The eclipse was now progressing ; the admiral, 
in answer to their prayers and promises, announced his intention 
to retire into his cabin and intercede with God for them ; and 
when the eclipse had reached its greatest he reappeared and 
assured them that God had heard his prayer, and in proof of this 
announced that the moon would become pacified and would set 
aside all appearances of anger. Just then the Indians saw the 
wane of the eclipse, as the admiral had assured them it would 
occur, and as it graduall}^ disappeared, the Indians returned 
thanks to the admiral and rendered praise to God. Thenceforth 
they were most faithful in bringing in the supplies of food for 
the Christians, whose chief thus had direct communication and 
influence with the God of the universe.* 

While most historians relate this anecdote as an evidence of 



* " Hist, del Almirante," by Fernando Columbus, cap. 104 ; Mr. Brownson's trans- 
lation of Tarducci's " Life of Columbus," vol. ii., pp. 305-307 ; Irving's " Columbus," 
vol. ii., pp. 396-400. 



530 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

the clever and ever-ready resources of Columbus in times of 
extreme danger, the Count de Lorgues takes a more serious and 
reverential yet rather extravagant view of the subject, as shown 
by the following paragraph : " In place of aiding him with a 
material miracle, as He would have done for a patriarch or 
prophet of the old law, and of sending him some manna or some 
quails, the Most High assisted him with an idea. He succored 
His servant with a notion derived from the scientific order de- 
pendent on the architecture of the heavens. He inspired him 
with a means that had never been employed since the commence- 
ment of certain history, and of which the admiral would never 
have thought. God reminded him that in three days there would 
be an eclipse of the moon. Thus the moon, that sign by which 
Diego Mendez was preserved from a horrible death from thirst, 
was to save Christopher Columbus from famine. In his per- 
plexities, every time the messenger of the Cross went to pray, 
the idea of the eclipse came into his mind. Columbus inferred 
from this circumstance that he must derive his safety from the 
eclipse. God simply indicated to him the subject ; his genius 
furnished him with the mode of rendering it efficacious." * And 
Father Knight says, while inclining to support the count's views, 
that "those who feel sure that Columbus a short time before 
mistook a flight of delirious fancy for a vision sent by God, might 
save him from the charge of impiety by consistently supposing 
that on this occasion he mistook a ' happy thought ' for a divine 
inspiration. Perhaps the poor natives were under no great delu- 
sion after all, when they drew the inference that the prayers of 
the persecuted just man were powerful with God."t Other 
historians regard the affair as purely the result of a clever device 
of the ever-ingenious mind of Columbus in times of necessity. 

The contrasts presented by history are more remarkable and 
extreme than the finest drawn scenes of fiction. While Colum- 
bus was now venerated by the Indians as one holding communi- 
cation with Heaven and controlling the very luminaries of the 
skies, his heart was racked with the most painful anxieties for 
the safety and return of the messenger sent to Hispaniola for 



* Dr. Barry's translation of the Count de Lorgues' " Life of Columbus," vol. ii., 
pp. 501, 502. 

f Rev. Arthur George Knight's " Life of Columbus," p. 215. 



ON COLUMB-US. 53 1 

relief. The long expectations and delays had now again brought 
discontent among his remaining companions, and endangered 
the very life of the man so powerful with God at the hands of his 
own followers. The growing despair of the Spaniards at the 
failure of Fiesco to return was now intensified and full, in conse- 
quence of reports brought in by the Indians of a wrecked vessel 
so near Jamaica that fragments of the wreck had floated to the 
shore. All concluded that this was the vessel sent by Ovando 
to take the Spaniards from their wrecks to a place of safety and 
to their homes. Although it subsequently turned out that these 
reports of floating fragments coming ashore were maliciously 
invented by the rebels under Porras, the effect of the fraud 
had nearly proved fatal to their chief and their countrymen, 
whom they had so disloyally abandoned and defied. So disas- 
trous were these reports and the disappointment at Fiesco's 
failure to return, that all hope of relief died in their hearts, and 
the Spaniards in their despair cast the blame for their misfortunes 
upon the admiral, entered into a conspiracy to take his life, and 
by seizing other canoes lately obtained from the Indians, to 
attempt the passage to Hispaniola. This second conspiracy was 
headed by Valencia, the apothecary, supported by Alonzo de 
Zamora, an esquire, and Pedro de Villatoro. Just as the con- 
spiracy was about to break out and carry its criminal purposes 
into effect. Providence came to the relief of the admiral and his 
companions. 

It was at night, and the conspirators were about to commit 
the worst of crimes, when a little sail was seen at sea toward the 
northeast ; but it soon approached, and though standing off, sent 
its boat to the wrecks on the strand. All the Spaniards hailed 
the apparition with joy ; the hour of deliverance was at hand. 
As the boat approached, rejoiced as all were to see the faces of 
Christians turned to them from the ocean, the appearance on 
board of Diego de Escobar, one of Roldan's most hardened 
rebels, a man who had been condemned to death during the 
admiral's administration and pardoned by Bobadilla, checked 
their hopes. Having delivered to the admiral a letter from 
Ovando, the governor of Hispaniola, together with a barrel of 
wine and a side of bacon sent by Ovando as presents, he drew 
off and talked with the admiral from a distance. He told the 
admiral that Ovando expressed great concern for his misfortunes, 



532 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

and regret at not having in port a ship of sufficient size to re- 
ceive him and his people, but that he would send one as soon as 
possible, and assured the admiral that his affairs in Hispaniola 
were receiving proper attention. Escobar offered to carry back 
any letter Columbus might wish to send to Ovando. 

Though stunned at the strange character of this cold and un- 
sympathetic mission, and chagrined at the meagre relief brought 
to relieve even the hunger of famishing countrymen stranded 
on a wild shore, Columbus immediately wrote to Ovando and 
described his forlorn situation, the rebellion of Porras, and ex- 
pressed his trust in the promise of speedy relief. He recom- 
mended Mendez and Fiesco to the confidence of the governor. 
Having received the admiral's letter, Escobar speedily returned 
to his ship, and the men's hopes of relief vanished with the ship's 
disappearance in the sea and the return of the darkness of night. 
The admiral did all in his power to dispel the inevitable and 
obvious gloom among his people, assuring them that he was 
quite satisfied with the interview with Escobar, and had urged 
his speedy return to Hispaniola in order to expedite the vessel 
which was to be sent to their relief ; and he added that he had 
himself declined to sail back to Hispaniola with Escobar, pre- 
ferring to share the fortunes of his men. When the Spaniards 
saw the bright countenance and heard the firm voice of the 
admiral, giving these assurances, confidence was restored and 
the mutiny dissolved. 

Calm and assured as was the countenance of Columbus in this 
heart-rending endeavor to give hope to his companions, he felt 
within his heart a storm of just indignation at the meanness of 
Ovando. Had not the governor received at the hands of the 
brave and faithful Mendez the letter written in his own hand, 
conveying the information of his desperate condition and of the 
danger he and his men were in from famine, the treachery of 
Spanish rebels, or from hostile natives ? That a Spanish governor 
should rest with cool indifference at so short a distance when his 
countrymen were in such peril, and when the very man who had 
revealed the new world to Spain was almost in the jaws of death 
on a savage shore, where he had suffered and waited in his suffer- 
ings for eight months, was something unworthy of savages, and 
yet we see it in this case practised by a Christian toward Chris- 
tians, by a Spaniard toward Spaniards. With ample means at 



ON COLUMBUS. 533 

his disposal, he sends the unfortunate admiral a condemned crim- 
inal with empty messages. With well-filled storehouses he sends 
to a hundred and thirty starving men a httle wine and a morsel 
of bacon. With ships at his disposal, he sends to the shipwrecked 
colony the promise of a ship. The mind of Columbus was clear 
in its judgment of Ovando's unworthy conduct. Knowing from 
the admiral's letter delivered by Mendez of the desperate situa- 
tion of the admiral, Ovando had sent not even a friendly mes- 
senger to devise the means or obtain information to be used for 
his relief, but a spy who, like himself, would have rejoiced at 
finding Columbus and all his men starved to death or murdered 
by the Indians. If Columbus should return to Spain, the gran- 
deur of his recent discoveries would restore his fortunes and 
secure his return to the administration. Ovando did not desire 
such results. Plainly expressed as this view is in the writings 
of the admiral's son, inspired no doubt by himself, the venerable 
Bishop Las Casas adopts the same opinion.* 

While some efforts have been made to excuse the unworthy 
conduct of Ovando toward Columbus, based upon supposed 
prudential considerations connected with the governor's adminis- 
tration at San Domingo, or the absurd rumor that Columbus, 
disgusted with his treatment by Spain, was desirous of trans- 
ferring the countries he had discovered either to his native 
Genoa or some other country, or upon some other equally un- 
real pretext, the strength of reasoning — nay, the whole weight 
of the evidences and arguments — is adverse to the conduct of 
Ovando. Had his motives been honest or honorable, his excuses 
true, he would not have sent as his messenger to Columbus the 
disgraced and condemned Escobar, who was his enemy. He 
would not have pointedly insulted Columbus while uttering 
empty words of sympathy for his misfortunes. 

The voyage of Mendez and Fiesco from Jamaica to Hispaniola 
was a test of human endurance, courage, and perseverance 
scarcely if at all equalled or surpassed by any similar feat in 
history or fiction. Sailing all the first day over a calm sea with- 
out wind, the heat of the sun and the labor at the oars exhausted 
the poor Indians ; plunges into the sea relieved the sufferings of 



* " Hist, del Almirante," Fernando Columbus, cap. civ. ; Las Casas, lib. ii., cap. 
xxxii. • 



534 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

the oarsmen ; even at night the oarsmen never rested. The Span- 
iards kept the watch with weapons in hand to guard against 
treachery or attack on the part of the Indians at the oars. The 
sun arose from a night of toil as sultry as the day. To the ex- 
haustion of labor was added the sufferings of thirst, for such was 
the heat that the Indians had resorted to the supply of water so 
eagerly that none was left. At noon on the second day the oars- 
men, courage and strength exhausted, could not hold their oars, 
when jNIendez and Fiesco found two casks of water, which they 
had prudently pretended were overlooked, and, with this doled 
out more for moistening the lips than for drinking, they suc- 
ceeded in rowing another day. The night came before land was 
sighted, and the night was spent in labor, watching, thirst, discour- 
agement, and agonies of mind and body. The Indians resorted 
to salt water to refresh their burning palates, but this transient 
relief was followed with greater suffering. The strain upon the 
eyes and nerves, from constant gazing toward the horizon for 
land, added to their agonies. One Indian died of exhaustion and 
thirst. Another night was spent in increased and increasing 
sufferings. The strong-hearted Mendez was on the verge of 
despair, when standing up at dusk in his canoe and straining his 
eyes to their utmost power, he dimly saw and exultingly ex- 
claimed, " Land ! Land !" Another night at the oars, but now 
at least with hope, the dying seemed revived sufificiently to row ; 
at daybreak they reached the land and sprang ashore with 
ardent thanks to God for saving them from imminent and cruel 
death. They had landed on Navasa, a mere mass of rocks, and 
here they obtained rain water from hollows in the rocks, fish from 
the sea, which they cooked, and rest. In the cool of the evening 
they rowed with renewed energy and strength, and after another 
night at the oars they reached next morning Cape Tiburon, the 
nearest point of Hispaniola. This was the fourth day after leav- 
ing Jamaica. The first great peril at least was now passed. 
Heroic as was this achievement, what shall be said to adequately 
commemorate the grandeur of Fiesco's fidelity, when he pro- 
posed to return in his canoe to relieve the anxious mind of the 
admiral ? But so intense had been the sufferings of the Spaniards 
and Indians, that none were willing to return with him in the 
canoe. Mendez, with a valor not surpassed in the most heroic 
lands and ages, rested not, either from oar or foot, until he had 



I 



ON COLUMBUS. 535 

found Ovando, then at Xaragua, and delivered to him the letter 
of the admiral. Tarducci characterizes this chivalrous adven- 
ture as ' ' one of the most perilous expeditions ever undertaken 
by a devoted follower for the safety of his commander." 

In contrast with the exalted and self-sacrificing act of Mendez 
in risking his own life for that of his commander and companions, 
stands forth the selfish, insincere, and heartless conduct of 
Ovando. His sordid actions leave no doubt as to the motives of 
Ovando in his refusal to Columbus of permission to take shelter 
at San Domingo from the storm, and in now doing nothing 
worthy of the name for his relief in such a peril. Receiving 
Mendez with great kindness and with expressions of great con- 
cern for the admiral's misfortunes, he made every promise, but 
he did not fulfil any. Days, weeks, and even months elapsed, 
and Mendez kept insisting all the time. Excuses and pretexts 
were substituted for fulfilment. Mendez asked permission to go 
to San Domingo, and out of the admiral's revenues there to 
make provision for his safety at his own expense. Not only did 
he refuse this permission, but insinuations that the shipwreck of 
Columbus was fraudulently contrived to give him an excuse for 
getting into San Domingo, and making a move for overturning 
Ovando's administration and seizing the reins for himself, were 
most mendaciously put out. It is more justly suspected that 
Ovando waited and procrastinated in the daily hope that Colum- 
bus might perish from hunger or rebel's sword or Indian's lance. 
The arduous efforts of Mendez to do something for the admiral's 
deliverance were little successful, but rather thwarted by the 
meanness of sending a message instead of a ship, a little wine and 
pork for feeding one hundred and thirty men, and selecting an 
avowed enemy of the admiral on this cruel mission. 

Columbus, on the other hand, generously trusted Ovando's 
promises of relief, as expressed by Escobar. He sent to the 
rebels a paternal message of his intention to carry them with 
him to a place of safety when Ovando should send a ship, as he 
hoped he would, and he even divided with them the scanty 
measure of wine and bacon sent to him by Ovando. He prom- 
ised them pardon if they would return to the wrecks, and an 
equal participation with the loyal ones if they would return to 
their allegiance. In return for these generous offers Porras 
returned the most insolent demands, and, on their rejection by 



536 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

him, fearing that his men would desert him in the hope of secur- 
ing through the admiral a safe return to Spain, he threatened 
the admiral with violence. He told his men that these pretended 
offers were seductive baits intended to allure them into the 
admiral's power ; that the story of the ship of Escobar was an 
invention of the admiral to deceive them ; and, relying on the 
superstitious dread entertained of his knowledge of the elements 
and his power as a sorcerer, the ship of Escobar was represented 
as a mere phantom ship conjured up by the admiral's mystic 
power in the dark sciences. By his insidious falsehoods and 
specious eloquence and appeals, he rallied the rebels and led 
them toward the wrecks to seize the barracks and make a prisoner 
of the admiral. The latter on his bed of sickness got informa- 
tion of their cowardly movement only when they had reached 
the village of Maima, a quarter of a league off ; and being him- 
self unable to move, he sent the Adelantado with fifty men — 
armed, it is true, but recently invalids, and even yet pale, weak, 
and emaciated — as ambassadors of peace. The offers of peace 
and invitations to a conference were insolently rejected, and the 
rebels, at the instigation of Porras ahd under his leadership, 
made a sudden and treacherous rush upon the Adelantado and 
his men, hoping by a preconcerted plan to kill the Adelantado 
first, and thus, having taken the soul out of this band of sickly 
and emaciated soldiers, to easily vanquish the men and march 
upon and seize the admiral in his bed. Their battle-cry, thus 
suddenly raised, was " Slay ! Slay !" In the assault six picked 
men, led by Francisco Porras, rushed at the Adelantado at the 
first onslaught, intending to dispatch him. That bold and fear- 
less hero met the assault with characteristic coolness and valor, 
and not only made good his defence, but had in the thickest of 
the fray killed or wounded several of his personal assailants, 
when Francisco Porras rushed upon him, and the sword intended 
for Don Bartholomew's heart was met with his shield, which it 
clove in two, and wounded the hand that carried it. Before 
Porras could withdraw his sword from the Adelantado's shield, 
the latter was upon him, grappling him, and finally, after a 
desperate struggle, with the assistance of others took him pris- 
oner. Inspired by the undaunted conduct and personal courage 
of the Adelantado, his enfeebled followers did Avell their part, 
and proved themselves more than the mere fancy soldiers Porras 



ON COLUMBUS. 53/ 

had represented them. Seeing their chief a prisoner fn the 
Adelantado's hands, the rebels fled before the men they had so 
much despised as convalescent patients of the wrecks. The 
Adelantado, who at first desired to follow up his victory, was 
persuaded by his officers that it was more prudent to allow them 
to escape immediate punishment and pursuit, as an attack from 
the Indians, whom Porras had disaffected, was greatly to be 
avoided ; for, in fact, the Indians in numbers, and with their 
arms, were silent spectators of this disgraceful struggle between 
Spaniards and Christians. 

Returning in triumph to the wrecks with Francisco Porras 
and the other prisoners, the Adelantado and his victorious com- 
panions were received with great joy by the admiral, and all 
united with the latter in returning their grateful thanks to God. 
On the field of this unworthy battle lay some of the most power- 
ful and undaunted men that a life of active adventure and an age 
of war could produce, either killed or wounded. It was a com- 
mentary on our civilization, when the Indians immediately after 
the struggle visited the scene, and from curiosity examined the 
wounds inflicted on the bodies of the slain with the arms used 
by the Christians. It was, no doubt, a double study to them : 
first, the manner in which the most skilfully manufactured arms 
in Europe were made, and how the}^ could be used ; and, sec- 
ondl}', how well and effectively the Christians knew how to 
slaughter each other. In their deeply interesting investigation 
they came upon a figure of gigantic size and herculean strength, 
which had fallen into a ditch, literally covered with wounds : his 
skull was split open, so as to expose the brain ; a second wound 
in the arm left that member hanging and nearly cut off ; a third 
wound was in the side, showing the ribs cut asunder ; a fourth 
opened the foot from h-eel to toe, and had the appearance of 
a sandal on the foot ; and though any one of them seemed enoijgh 
to have caused the death of even such a man, other lesser wounds 
seemed to have left him a disfigured mass. With stoical yet 
eager curiosity the Indians turned his mangled and apparently 
dead body over and over, and opened the wounds anew in order 
to see how the European weapons could cut. Suddenly from the 
lacerated body proceeded a voice of thunder, saying, " Let me 
be ! If I get up, I will — " Such was the effect of this stentorian 
and threatening voice, proceeding from the supposed corpse of 



538 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

the dead soldier, that the Indians fled in dismay, believing 
themselves followed and chased by all the dead bodies on the 
field. They had supposed the Spaniards to be immortal and not 
subject to death, and now, having seen the field was strewn with 
the dead, they again believed the dead returning to life ; but, 
alas ! experience had dispelled all their delusions. The hero 
of this adventure was no other than Pedro Ledesma, the same 
that had braved the fury of the storm and the danger of the 
rocks at Veragua, in order to obtain information for the admiral 
as to the fate of his brother and companions on shore. Learning 
thus from the Indians of the survival of Ledesma, who was sup- 
posed to have been killed, the Spaniards from the wrecks took 
him from the field to a near-by thatched cottage and dressed his 
wounds with oil, as they had no medicines ; and though, as Fer- 
nando Columbus says, " the insects and dampness of the cottage 
were enough to finish him," he recovered and returned to Spain. 
Las Casas, the venerable bishop and historian, afterward saw 
and conversed with this unconquerable soldier, and received 
from him an account of the battle. Tarducci relates that " this 
singular man was afterward killed in Seville by the dagger of an 
assassin." * 

The Adelantado and Pedro Terreros were the only two 
M'^ounded among the loyal Spaniards, and the latter died of his 
wound a few days afterward, greatly regretted. This singular 
battle between Christians in the wilderness of America within a 
few years after its discovery, and in the presence of the savages, 
occurred on the very day of religious rest and prayer, Sunday, 
May 19th, 1503. It had the effect, however, of making loyal 
Spaniards of the rebels. The next day the fugitive rebels sent 
their unanimous and humble petition to the admiral, begging for 
his mercy and pardon, assuring him of their repentance and de- 
sire to return to their duty, and filled with ample promises of 
future good conduct. In this singular document the}' swore b}' 
the Cross and the gospel that they were sincere, and "they 
hoped, if they broke their oath, that no priest or Christian should 
ever confess them ; that no penance should help them ; that they 
should be deprived of the Church's sacraments ; that their souls, 
after death, should receive no relief from bulls or indulgences ; 



* Mr. Brownson's translation of Tarducci's " Life of Columbus," vol. ii., p. 321. 



ON COLUMBUS. 539 

that, instead of being buried in consecrated ground, their bodies 
should be thrown in the open field, like those of renegades and 
heretics ; and that no pope, cardinal, archbishop, bishop, or 
Christian priest should give them absolution."* While Mr. 
Irving says, in reference to this overflowing manifestation of 
repentance, that " the worthlessness of a man's word may always 
be known by the extravagant means he uses to enforce it," the 
admiral, trusting to the utter abjectness of these now repentant 
rebels, but moved chiefly by his own accustomed magnanimit}^ 
granted their prayer. Francisco Porras, however, was to re- 
main a prisoner. 

Columbus, though already well strained to provide food for 
his loyal companions, now found it no small undertaking to feed 
his community, now swelled in numbers by the return of the 
rebels. His generosity, however, knew no distinction, and his 
discreet judgment set a value upon the union of his followers 
above all other considerations. Confining his prisoner, Francisco 
Porras, on one of the wrecks, he placed the late rebels under the 
command of a discreet and loyal officer, and cantoned them on 
the island in order to avoid too great crowding of the wrecks, 
and in order to lessen the danger of fresh quarrels, where so 
many were crowded together in such contracted quarters. Sup- 
plying the officer in command of the late insurgents with Euro- 
pean articles to barter with the Indians in exchange for food, 
they were directed to look for food in this way. 

The untiring efforts of the faithful Diego Mendez at San 
Domingo finally succeeded in securing a ship for the deliver- 
ance of the admiral ; but in the absence of all attempts to this 
end by the unworthy and selfish Ovando, the ship was purchased 
and equipped at the admiral's own expense. Such was the in- 
dignation in Hispaniola against Ovando for his open and undis- 
guised abandonment of the discoverer of America to his terrible 
fate — a feeling which found expression from the pulpits and in 
public prayers announced for the safety of the admiral and his 
men — that Ovando, when he saw that Mendez had fitted out a 
ship, also now found it at last in his power to do the same. He 



* Las Casas, "Hist. Ind.," lib, ii., cap. xxv. ; "Hist, del Almirante," Fernando 
Columbo, cap. cvii. ; Irving's " Columbus," vol. ii., p. 420; Dr. Barry's translation 
of De Lorgues' " Columbus," p. 50S ; Mr. Brownson's translation of Tarducci's " Life 
of Columbus," vol. ii., p. 322. 



540 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

selected and equipped a second ship, and placed it under the 
command of Diego de Salcedo, to whom Mendez had confided 
the first ship, a true friend of Columbus and his agent at San 
Domingo. But before relating the facts connected with the 
deliverance of Columbus and his companions from their long 
and cruel exile on the savage coast of Jamaica, I will briefly 
relate the historv of Ovando's administration in Hispaniola — an 
administration as damaging to his character and record in his- 
tory as is his mean and ungenerous treatment of Columbus in 
his misfortunes. 

While Columbus, in making up his third voyage, had been 
compelled to take with him the convicts and criminals of Spain, 
on account of the disgust created in the public mind at seeing so 
many sick and disappointed people returning from the new 
world, now under Ovando the tide was reversed, and thou- 
sands eagerly sought for permission to go. The craze for gold 
carried hosts of adventurers thither, and no sooner had the ves- 
sels landed at San Domingo than the roads leading to the mines 
were crowded with gold-seekers, speculators, dreamers, spend- 
thrifts, and adventurers seeking to repair their broken fortunes. 
The scene resembled the rush for the California mines in our 
own times and country, when the gold of California crazed our 
own people. While hidalgos had refused to work under Colum- 
bus on the public works and for the general safety, now these 
gentlemen traveled on foot, with a pack containing biscuit and 
miner's tools on their backs, from San Domingo to the mines, 
jostling each other and the humblest members of society, and 
crowding the road in company with people of every class. 
Stunned, on arriving at their Eldorado, on finding that it was 
necessary to dig and toil to reach Nature's treasures, which she 
had so guarded as to render them worth laboring for if worth 
acquiring, a terrible reaction soon came, and the miners found 
their provisions consumed, themselves exhausted with toil and 
hunger, and many were so impoverished that they were com- 
pelled to sell the clothes on their backs in order to get some- 
thing to eat. The road over which the most brilliant hopes had 
lately hurried them was now crowded with a reversed cur- 
rent of si-ck, disappointed, hungr}', dusty, ragged, fainting, and 
dejected adventurers. Employment on farms by old settlers 
relieved some, charity relieved others, while many more died of 



ON COLUMBUS. 541 

consumption, fevers, and various diseases to the number of a 
thousand and more. 

Ovando, while he is not recorded as having warned his col- 
onists against such evils, as he should have done, was generally 
regarded in his time as a prudent and capable governor for the 
Spaniards ; but to the poor and innocent natives his administra- 
tion was an exterminating scourge. Columbus when in power, 
driven by the powerless condition in which the home govern- 
ment had left him in Hispaniola, had given lands to Roldan's 
rebels in 1499, and had arranged with the caciques for sending 
a certain number of their subjects to work upon the lands in 
commutation for tribute — an arrangement which, as the tribute 
was an inevitable result of Spanish rule, is generally regarded 
by historians as involving no hardship on the natives, if carried 
into effect with justice and fairness, and as well calculated to 
accustom the natives gradually to labor and to lead to the gen- 
eral cultivation of the land. Ovando, however, followed up 
most unjustly the unwise and oppressive system of repartimieiitos 
which Bobadilla had introduced, whereby that special agree- 
ment of Columbus was developed into a governmental system, 
and the caciques were compelled to assign a certain number of 
Indians to every Spaniard to work upon the mines, and in the 
end all the natives were divided into classes and distributed 
among the farmers. No system of human slavery could be more 
complete than this. Indeed, Ovando, instead of restoring liberty 
to the natives, as commanded by the Spanish sovereigns, and 
using every effort by gentleness and justice to win them to Chris- 
tianity, availed himself of a clause in the royal instructions by 
which he was permitted to impose moderate work on the natives 
for their own good, in order and with the effect of completely 
enslaving them, free men by nature, to their Spanish masters. 
Instead of protecting them in the moderation of the tasks im- 
posed on them, he allotted to every Spaniard a certain number 
of Indians, according to his rank or his own caprice, and the 
caciques were compelled to furnish them. While nominall}- 
providing for their being paid and instructed in the Christian 
religion, the former was a deception, and the latter was limited 
to the bestowal of baptism upon a miserable and abused race, 
who had never seen or experienced the benign principles of 
Christianity practised by their Christian masters. 



542 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

The cruelty practised on the Indians by the Spaniards under 
this system was most brutal. The venerable Bishop Las Casas, 
himself a Spaniard and an eye-witness of what he relates, saw 
the Indians constantly sent on long and painful journeys to work, 
separated for daj's from their wives and children, driven with 
the lash most inhumanly to get up and resume work whenever 
they fell or sat down to rest, and treated generally worse than 
beasts of burden. Cassava bread, which might suffice for the 
life of ease and indolence they formerly led, was not enough to 
sustain their present life of toil, travel, and hardship, and occa- 
sionally a morsel of bacon was added in such mean measure as 
to suggest its want rather than its enjoyment. The bishop 
actually relates that he saw the Spanish ov^erseers at their com- 
fortable meals, while the exhausted and famishing Indians 
crouched like dogs under the tables, and scrambled eagerly for 
the smallest bone that fell to the ground ; and when a morsel of 
bone was thus obtained, the poor Indians would gnaw it, suck 
it, and finally, when they could get nothing more from it by 
gnawing or sucking, they would grind it between stones and 
spread the savory but miserable bone dust on their cassava 
bread. Field laborers never received flesh or fish to eat, but 
were confined to cassava bread. While thus half-starved they 
were worked most inhumanly, and such as fled to the mountains 
for freedom and to escape inevitable death were hunted like 
beasts, punished most cruelly, and ironed to prevent a second 
escape. Many died before their terms of labor expired, usually 
six or eight months in the year ; others expired on the roads re- 
turning to their homes, some forty, sixty, or eighty leagues off. 
Las Casas saw many dead or expiring on the roads, and the 
latter, when approached by him, could only say faintly, " I am 
hungry ! I am hungry !" Their own homes were desolate, 
their lands uncultivated and overrun with weeds ; they often 
found their wives or children dead or scattered, and many, on 
reaching home, sank down on the sills of once happy but now 
silent and deserted cabins to die. Many killed themselves in 
despair. Mothers destroyed their children at their breasts to 
save them from lives of torture. In twelve years from the dis- 
covery of the island several hundred thousands of natives had 
perished, the victims of the white man's ambition or avarice ; 
and the race, as Mr. Irving says, was actuall}' " dissolving, as it 



ON COLUMBUS. 543 

were, from the face of the earth."* How recently had the 
Spaniards seen this beautiful country for the first time beaming- 
like an earthly paradise ! 

Turning from the sickening picture of Ovando's civil adminis- 
tratioii in Hispaniola, his military record is not less heart-rending- 
and revolting. The kingdom of Xaragua, on the death of 
Behechio, its cacique, without a son, had descended to his sister, 
the noble, beautiful, and generous Anacaona, the firm friend of 
the Spaniards. It took much to shake her friendship for them, 
but she saw more than sufficient in the cruelties of the white 
men toward her race, the miseries she saw them suffer, her own 
distresses growing out of the love affair between the young 
Spaniard, Fernando de Guevara, and her beautiful daughter, 
Higuenamota, the excesses of Roldan's rebels in her neighbor- 
hood, and the tortures and ruin resulting from the repartimientos. 
No act of hostility, no secret intrigue, no unfriendly word, no dis- 
loyal thought could justly be imputed to Anacaona. The con- 
dition of the country .was such that frequent disputes arose 
between persecuted Indians and tyrannical Spaniards, and where 
an excuse was desired, a ready one was now found in the slander- 
ous reports brought to Ovando of a general conspiracy in 
Xaragua among the Indians to rise on their persecutors and 
slaughter them. Without investigating the matter he marched 
into that province with three hundred men on foot armed with* 
swords, arquebuses, and bows, and seventy mounted men armed 
with cuirasses, shields, and lances. No efforts to discover the 
truth, no explanations asked, no declaration of war was neces- 
sary ; but war lurked under professions of friendship. 

What excuse can be made for his treacherous announcement 
that he was going on a friendly visit to the queen, Anacaona .? 
When received by the friendly queen with gracious and queenly 
welcome and hospitality, and treated with every honor, in pre- 
tended return for the Indian games and national performances 
with which he and his army had been entertained, he falsel}^ and 
dishonorably drew that noble woman and the neighboring 
caciques, her vassals and their people, into a snare, under the 



* Las Casas, " Hist. Ind.," lib. ii., cap. xiv. ; Irving's "Columbus," vol. ii., pp. 
423-28; Mr. Brovvnson's translation of Tarducci's "Life of Columbus," vol, ii., 
pp. 323-27. 



544 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

pretext of entertaining them with Spanish games and exercises. 
On a concerted signal given by Ovando himself a massacre, 
scarcely paralleled in history for its wantonness and cruelty, 
followed. If the Indians had risen on the Spaniards, or even 
designed to do so, this could have been discovered and punished 
by the imprisonment of the caciques ; but no proof of this was 
taken or existed. The Spanish army suddenly rushed upon the 
crowd of naked, unarmed, and trusting Indians ; men, women, 
and children, old and young, were slaughtered, trampled under 
foot of man and horse, while indiscriminate death was inflicted. 
The house containing the queen and the caciques was surrounded 
and seized. Anacaona was put in chains, the caciques were tied 
to the posts supporting the roof and burned to death beneath the 
fired building. Torture, horribly administered, had in this house 
extracted a worthless admission of the alleged conspiracy from 
a poor cacique. The fugitives from this wholesale carnage were 
overtaken and subjected to the slow death of slaver}-. The noble 
Anacaona, the white man's friend, was afterward ignominiously 
hanged at San Domingo in the presence of many who should 
have returned her friendship by at least defending her or saving 
her. Ovando, with unmanly perfidy, had endeavored to palliate 
his crime b}^ falsely befouling the reputation of Anacaona, but 
histor)^ has acquitted her, while his meanness, perfidy, and 
cruelty stand forever against him. Eighty-four caciques were 
burned to death b}' Ovando, and, to add to the infamy of his con- 
duct, it is related, by undoubted authorit}', that just before this 
wanton massacre Ovando had played a game of battledore with 
his officers ! 

" Cruel of heart and strong of arm, 

Loud in his sport and keen of spoil, 
He little reck'd of good or harm. 
Fierce both in mirth and toil ; 
Yet like a dog could fawn, if need there were ; 
Speak mildly when he would, or look in fear." 

— Dana's " Buccaneer." 

The pretended fear of Ovando for an Indian conspiracy which 
never existed, his acceptance of the hospitality of the Xaraguans 
and their noble queen, his game of pleasure when thirst for blood 
consumed his heart, his treachery to the confiding Indians, his 
dishonorable abuse of the rites of hospitality, his violation of 
every precept of Christianity, his wanton cruelty, his levity in 



ON COLUMBUS. 545 

the midst of the fiercest slaughter he contemplated, his cold- 
blooded judicial murders, his unrelenting destruction of women 
and children, his remorseless and continued persecution and ruin 
of an already subject race, are parts only of the unworthy record 
of a man who had won the decorations of chivalrous and Chris- 
tian orders ! He was commander of Larez, of the Order of 
Alcantara ! Well has Tarducci exclaimed, " For the sake of 
humanity we wish we could discredit this atrocious infamy of 
Ovando and his followers." 

The massacre of the Xaraguans continued for six months, for 
the Spaniards seemed not contented with subjugation, but to aim 
at absolute annihilation under the pretext of suppressing the 
insurrection which never occurred. How could so ruined a 
people, absolutely flying from their homes to the mountains to 
escape destruction, be said to be in insurrection ? And when 
the fugitives fled to the caves of the mountains they were said to 
be plotting insurrection. Their deserted houses and villages 
were fired ; the fugitives were captured and killed ; the more 
the affrighted natives fled from the wrath of their masters, the 
more the latter pursued and slaughtered them. Their retreats 
in the caverns became their tombs ; villages were destro)^ed and 
inhabitants murdered to such an extent that there remained but 
little to burn and few to murder — surely none to make an insur- 
rection ! Finally the Spaniards considered order restored in 
Xaragua, where it had never been disturbed except by Spaniards. 
With an inconsistency as strange as it was blasphemous, Ovando 
erected on the shore of a beautiful lake a new city in commemo- 
ration of his triumph over the unresisting Xaraguans, and called 
it Santa Maria de la Verdadera Paz (St. Mary of True Peace), 
giving to it for its arms the olive branch, the iris, and the cross. 
No wonder that Tarducci, in recording this brazen mockery, 
exclaimed, " I know of no bloody hypocrisy that can compare 
with this." Sacrilege was thus added to an endless list of crimes. 

There only remained now the fine province of Higuey to be 
conquered in order to complete the Spanish conquest and sub- 
jugation of all Hispaniola. A pretext, however slight, was only 
needed to draw upon the Higueyans the exterminating wrath of 
the Spaniards. Ovando regarded such conquests as glorious 
triumphs, to be commemorated with devotional shrines. But to 
conquerors so accustomed to acts of cruelty and suppression a 



546 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

pretext was not long wanting, and the pretext of course arose 
out of some wanton act of cruelty from themselves. Some 
Spaniards cruelly set a fierce dog on a cacique of the province ; 
he was horribly bitten, and soon died of his wounds. Instead of 
surrendering the criminals — an utterly unheard-of thing for con- 
querors to do — or at least punishing the miscreants for murder, 
the demands for justice on the part of the Higueyans were not 
noticed. Ovando decided to let time and neglect allay their 
just indignation. But the wronged savages acted upon the 
natural law of retaliation, and made reprisals by seizing and put- 
ting to death a boatload of Spaniards, eight in number, near the 
little island of Saona, in Higuey. Now the law of justice was 
reversed, and the Spaniards sent four hundred armed men to 
punish the whole nation. The chief cacique of the district was 
the noble and gigantic Cotabanama, the tallest man in the coun- 
try, and the best proportioned. The Spanish forces, under the 
command of Esquibel, pretended at first to desire to right the 
matter by peaceful negotiation ; but the cacique, remembering 
the slaughter of the Xaraguans under the guise of a friendly 
entertainment, justly distrusted the good faith of the invaders. 
Strong in numbers, thoroughly conversant with the country, 
brave as the bravest, and conscious of the justice of their cause, 
the Indians appealed to the dread arbitration of arms, and in the 
conflict they showed the most wonderful evidences of valor, 
constanc}^ and national pride. The military skill, the discipline, 
the arms of the Europeans, however, gave to inferior numbers 
the advantage over undisciplined numbers. The brave Higuey- 
ans were defeated at every point and dispersed ; they fled to 
mountain and forest. The Spaniards pursued them unmerci- 
fully, hounded them out of their hiding-places, slaughtered men, 
women, and children, burned the chiefs alive, and repeated with 
increased fury and in greater detail the horrors of Xaragua. The 
little island of Saona, where the boatload of Spaniards had been 
killed, received the worst punishment, showing that revenge, 
not protection or defence, was the object of the assailants. The 
land was scoured with relentless fury, and the inhabitants re- 
morselessly murdered. Finding in one place of retreat seven 
hundred affrighted Indians of every age, sex, and condition, the 
Spanish soldiers rushed upon them and slaughtered them at the 
sword's point, and the enclosure of death was flowing with blood.. 



-Of COLUMBUS. '^54j' 

A few only of the Inhabitants escaped a cruel death, and these 
were made slaves. The whole province was turned into a vast 
scene of desolation. The trained European soldiers, who could 
treacherously abuse the hospitality of a woman and wage war on 
her, without justice, pretext, or mercy, now had no mercy for a 
nation of brave men. The Indians who survived this massacre 
sued for peace, were reduced to slavery, and were given their 
lives on condition of cultivating a large tract of land for furnish- 
ing to their masters an immense quantity of cassava bread as 
tribute. Peace, if such annihilation be peace, having been con- 
quered, the brave Cotabanama visited the Spanish camp to make 
his submission, and according to the Indian custom, took the 
name of the conquering chief, Juan de Esquibel, and gave his 
own name to the conqueror. Even in this exchange the loss 
was on the side of the honest Indian chief. A fort was erected 
on the soil of the vanquished, under Martin de Villaman, with a 
garrison of nine men. It was a humiliating spectacle, when the 
Spanish soldiers marched awa}', to see each one of the conquerors 
carrying off a number of slaves, assigned to him as the rich spoils 
of war. 

Villaman, the commander of the fort, was a worthy representa- 
tive of such humane chieftains as Ovando and Esquibel. The 
agreement of submission was violated even by those who had 
gained all by it. The Indians were compelled to carry the har- 
vested grain on their backs to San Domingo, and on their show- 
ing the least resistance were treated with unmeasured brutality. 
The Spaniards were allowed unbridled license, and the Indian 
women, girls and wives, w^ere subjected to the unchecked lust of 
these unworthy Christian conquerors. To yield to the oppres- 
sion of the conquerors brought no relief to the Higueyans ; and 
finally, when the last instincts of manhood showed themselves in 
a righteous revolt of the persecuted natives, the whole of Higuey 
was, by Ovando's orders, given over to fire and sword. The few 
inhabitants left alive from the late Spanish scourge, while show- 
ing unsurpassed personal courage and patriotism, were treated 
with the utmost brutality, and the Indians fell in the most heroic 
struggle for their liberty and homes rather than live to be Span- 
ish slaves. Some, who had not found a chance to die in defend- 
ing their own, were forced to act as guides to their enemies, and 
with ropes tied around their necks they were driven forward to 



548 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

show the spots wherever a few fugitives had retreated. While 
the Indians sought death in preference to slavery, the Spanish 
blades * ' never stopped striking or slaying as long as life re- 
mained."* In the last stronghold of the poor inhabitants, the 
capital of Cotabanama, strategy brought into the power of the 
Spaniards parties of Indians assembled or hidden to defend their 
country, and they were given over to merciless slaughter. One 
slaughter was followed by another ; blood flowed like water ; 
the Indians showed heroic bravery — the courage of desperation — 
and finally, when Spanish arms prevailed over their splendid 
heroism, they fled to the most inaccessible mountains, followed 
by their unsparing conquerors. The Spaniards called this " the 
hunt of the Indians," and so it was, for the gentle and noble 
Las Casas sent up a cry of horror at the atrocities of his countr}'^- 
men ; and it is consoling to find one voice at least to cast infamy 
upon the authors of such horrors. It is no palliation of their 
crimes to allege that the Spaniards were made up of the lowest 
dregs of society and the refuse of prisons and galleys, when 
under the eyes of the commanders and by their orders the poor 
Indians caught had their hands cut off, and were thus sent to 
their flying countrymen to procure their submission. This was 
a common cruelty, and resulted in many excruciating deaths on 
the open roads. Other Indians were swung upon gibbets hung 
so low that the feet of the victims touched the ground, and thus 
prolonged and increased their sufferings. To add blasphemy to 
the atrocities of these unworthy representatives of a Christian 
civilization, the Spaniards hung thirteen Indians at one time, 
saying it was in memory of Christ and the twelve apostles. 
While the tortured victims were thus hanging, the Spaniards 
wantonly tested the strength and qualities of their swords by 
mangling and mincing their bodies, and ended the atrocious 
tragedy by gayly lighting a bonfire of their victims, thus con- 
suming the dead and dying together. Caciques and other more 
important prisoners were broiled alive on gridirons by slow 
lires. Las Casas says that he once saw five caciques thus burned, 
each on a separate gridiron, and his generous heart was racked 
by their piteous screams. These same screams, long continued 
by the slowness of the fires, disturbed the sleep of the captain, 



Mr. Brovvnson's translation of Tarducci's " Life of Columbus," vol. ii., p. 336. 



ON COLUMBUS. 549 

who sent an order to strangle the victims ; but the executioner 
stopped their cries by stuffing- chips in their mouths, while their 
tortures were prolonged. He continued during the night to 
poke the fires, that he might the longer enjoy their tortures and 
sufferings. Las Casas recorded such horrors of Spanish desola- 
tion in Hispaniola that, while he states that he witnessed them 
with his own eyes, he could scarcely believe them afterward 
when his pen recorded them, and they seemed like a dream. 

To end this abhorrent narrative, it must be stated that the final 
retreat of the brave and unfortunate Cotabanama, on the island 
of Saona, was ferreted out by the Spaniards by means of tortures 
and cruelties inflicted upon the natives, his subjects, who kept 
his secret and guarded the way. The chief was wounded, and 
dragged, all bleeding from his wounds, like a wild beast to the 
nearest village and ironed. The wife and children of the chief 
escaped from the hiding-place where he was seized to another. 
The Spaniards who seized Cotabanama at first thought of amus- 
ing themselves by broiling him alive, but this was regarded as 
too selfish a sport for a few to enjoy, and he was carried in chains 
to San Domingo. Such was his wounded and bloody appear- 
ance that no one could recognize the once handsome chief ; but 
neither his sufferings, his helpless condition, his approaching 
death from loss of blood and from his tortures, could find an 
honest or humane cord in the heart of Ovando to touch. By the 
governor's orders this noble chief was ignominiously hanged in 
the public square at San Domingo. He was the last of the 
native sovereigns of Hispaniola. With him expired all effort of 
the Indians to defend their homes or country, or to assert their 
natural independence. This once peaceful and happy race pos- 
sessed a country a few years before, at the time they were first vis- 
ited by the white men, which ravished the eyes of the intruders. 
Now this land of beauty, plenty, and of peace was a vast scene 
of desolation. Of the innocent and contented native race that 
held their country by a title derived from the God of all and from 
the law of nature, scarcely one-sixth part had escaped or sur- 
vived the sword, the fagot, or the gibbet of their Spanish con- 
querors. Upon this unhappy remnant of a noble and generous 
race the Spanish yoke rested most cruelly, and death from the 
slower tortures of the mines, the fields, the lash, the rope, and 
the prison, and from fatigue, ill-treatment, cruel labor and 



550 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

oppression came upon them as surely as it had more speedily 
overtaken their slaughtered countrymen. Despair was not resig- 
nation. Death was not submission. When the brave Cota- 
banama claimed the protection of honor and friendship arising 
from the exchange of names, and exclaimed beneath the Spanish 
swords, " I am Juan de Esquibel," he was treated with scorn, 
tortures, and an ignominious death. What quarter could these 
poor Indians expect from the hands of men who disgraced the 
very name of Christian, to which they so tenaciously clung, and 
which they had hypocritically professed to desire to share with 
the Indians ? The generous heart of the noble Bishop Las Casas, 
who witnessed the atrocities here related, and which are here 
narrated on the authority of his writings, bled for the Indians. 
We know of no other humane voice then and there to join har- 
moniously with him in the protest against such atrocities. But 
there was one other heart — a suffering one not far distant — a 
heart which, though Christian, had felt the cruelties of Ovando 
in the midst of his own wrongs, which bled with the heart of Las 
Casas for the slaughtered Indians : this was the heart of Chris- 
topher Columbus ! 

The two ships fitted out at San Domingo, after a year's heart- 
less delay and cruel sufferings on the part of Columbus and his 
followers, sailed from that port. The faithful Mendez, having 
witnessed their departure, availed himself of the first opportunity 
of sailing for Spain to execute the important mission intrusted to 
him by Columbus. Fiesco also, now that the admiral was to be 
released, returned to Spain. The two ships under the command 
of Diego de Salcedo, when they arrived at Santa Gloria, the 
port of the admiral's shipwreck and exile in Jamaica, brought joy 
for the first time to the hearts of all. On one of the vessels the 
admiral embarked with such of his companions as had proved 
faithful ; he sent the rebels on board the other. Leaving his 
loathsome wrecks and embarking on the caravel, the admiral 
raised his flag, and, as Mr. Irving says, ' ' he felt as if the career 
of enterprise and glory were once more open to him." The 
Porras brothers and their unworthy confederates felt anxious 
about the treatment they should receive from the man whom 
they had so grossly slandered and treacherously treated ; but 
Columbus was most generous in moments of prosperity. Not 



ON COLUMBUS. ' 55 1 

only did he take them on board one of the caravels, but he pro- 
vided for their relief and comfort out of his own purse, and after 
their arrival in Spain he continued to plead with the sovereigns 
in their behalf. Francisco Porras, while Ovando deemed it best 
not to investigate the affair, was sent by him to Spain for exami- 
nation by the Bureau of the Indies. The admiral with the two 
caravels sailed from the Bay of Santa Gloria on June 28th, but 
he was detained by contrary winds, and it took a month for the 
caravels to accomplish a voyage performed by Mendez and 
Fiesco in Indian canoes in four da3^s. Reaching the little island 
of Beata on August 3d, Columbus, distrusting the variable winds 
of that region, sent overland a letter to Ovando announcing his 
arrival. This letter he deemed necessary to remove the unjust 
suspicions which the governor entertained and had expressed as 
to his motives ; but favorable winds enabled him to resume his 
voyage on August 13th, and he soon entered the port of San 
Domingo. 

Columbus now received welcome and sympathy at the place 
where not long before he was execrated and reviled, and even 
refused a shelter from the storm. Not only did the people turn 
out and receive him with looks and expressions of sympathy, but 
Ovando, accompanied by the principal persons of the place, 
advanced to meet him, gave him a distinguished reception, and 
claimed the privilege of making him his guest. Fernando Colum- 
bus characterizes the change in Ovando's conduct as " the peace 
of the scorpion." While pretending the utmost friendship and 
regard for the admiral, he claimed that Jamaica was within his 
jurisdiction, and that he was the judge in all matters occurring 
there under Columbus. Hence he released Porras and sent him 
to Spain with his own instructions as to his disposal, and even 
talked of punishing such of the admiral's companions as had 
taken up arms in his defence and had killed in battle the rebels 
who were Spanish subjects. An argument of considerable 
warmth took place over the question of jurisdiction, Ovando 
claiming power over all persons and things within the islands 
and Terra Firma, while the admiral asserted, by virtue of his 
royal letters, which he produced, authority over all persons 
sailing with him on this expedition, from its departure to its re- 
turn to Spain. Each claimant punctiliously contended for his 



552 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

view. Ovando, while he relinquished the idea of trying the 
followers of Columbus, assumed authority to dispose of the case 
of Porras and his rebels. 

The heart of Columbus bled for the miseries and wrongs of 
the poor natives of Hispaniola, and he was anxious to return to 
Spain and plead their cause before the queen, who united with 
him in a sincere desire to save them and convert them to the 
Christian faith. Columbus also saw through the exterior courtesy 
of Ovando his hypocritical heart, for self-interest made a selfish 
and grasping man like him feel and act upon the fact that the 
admiral's interests were adverse to his own. It had been an- 
nounced that the admiral's suspension from command in His- 
paniola was only temporary ; Ovando's commission was for two 
years ; and at the end of this time, when it was anticipated that 
things would have quieted down, Columbus expected to resume 
his authority over the island. He found that his every move- 
ment and word were watched, as were those of his faithful fol- 
lowers. It was evident that, while Ovando professed a certain 
ceremonious friendship for him, he was at heart his bitter enemy. 
He determined to shorten his stay at San Domingo, and having 
fitted up and repaired the vessel which Mendez had sent to con- 
vey him from Jamaica to Hispaniola, and chartered another, he 
prepared to sail. Most of his companions on the fourth voyage 
preferred to remain at Hispaniola, and as they were poor, needy, 
and without clothes, the admiral generously provided for them 
out of the scanty revenue that had been collected for him, and he 
advanced the money for such as wished to return to Spain. In 
his generosity he made no distinction between those who had 
remained faithful to him and those who had rebelled against him. 
He treated them all with truly paternal and tender care. He 
embarked with his son and domestics on the ship sent to him by 
Mendez, and sent his brother with the others on board the other 
caravel. The ships sailed from San Domingo on September 
1 2th, but now again Columbus had experiences of his usual ill 
luck from the weather, for a storm carried away his ship's mast, 
so that he was compelled to go with his party on board the other 
ship and send the disabled caravel back to port. The first part 
of the voyage was favorable. On October i8th the ship encoun- 
tered furious storms, her mainmast was split into four pieces, the 
admiral was prostrated on his couch with a severe return of his 



ON COLUMBUS. 553 

gout, and it was only the Adelantado's energy and excellent skill 
that carried the ship through the dangers by which she was 
beset at every turn. Finally the ship, in a crippled condition, 
entered the port of San Lucar de Barrameda, on November 7th, 
1504. But if his ship was bravely kept together and held from 
going to pieces, the health of the admiral was completely 
wrecked. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

" Here is my journey's end, here is my birth. 
And very sea-mark of my utmost sail." 

—Shakespeare's "Othello." 

" At every little breath misfortune blows, 
'Till left quite naked of their happiness, 
In the chill blast of winter they expire." 

— Young. 

A CASTILLA Y A LEON 
NUEVO MUNDO DIO COLON. 

—Epitaph of Columbus. 

From the port of San Lucar de Barrameda the sick and en- 
feebled admiral had himself carried to Seville, where he hoped 
to find rest and repose after the disasters, misfortunes, and suffer- 
ings of his last voyage. He hoped soon to go from Seville to 
court ; but misfortune followed him wherever he went, and every 
day and hour of his declining years. Seville was not then a 
congenial place for him ; his friends, and even the learned and 
sympathetic Gaspard Gorricio, the Franciscan monk, were all 
absent. He was compelled to put up in a hotel ; and as it was 
winter — the severest winter in the memory of men — his bodily 
sufferings from his old disease were intense. Confined to his 
bed, unable to move, he could only with great difficulty and pain 
use his pen, now so necessary for the promotion of his imperilled 
affairs and interests. Seville had become the centre of colonial 
business ; the Admiralty of the Indies had become thoroughly 
organized as a marine and colonial administration, and was pre- 
sided over by Juan de Fonseca, his implacable enemy. While 
he was confined to his bed by illness and sufferings his enemies 
were abroad. The late rebels who had conspired against his life ' 

were received at court and were plotting against him, and the * 

documents relating to their misconduct had been carried back to 
San Domingo in the unmasted caravel. The sailors who returned 
with him now, including some who had opposed him, were 



ON COLUMBUS. 555 

still without their back pay ; all these came to him in his own 
poverty to ask his pecuniary assistance, and for his aid in pre- 
senting their claims. If Columbus had suffered so intensely from 
his disease in the warm climates, to which he was accustomed, 
and in which he was constantly confined to his bed, unable to 
repose day or night from the agonizing spasms in his joints, 
what must now have been his sufferings in the severity of this un- 
precedented winter, especially when the excitement of discovery 
and adventure was withdrawn ! 

Great as were his physical sufferings, immensely greater were 
his mental agonies. While his few friends were absent from 
Seville, that city was filled with his enemies. Not the least of 
his humiliations was the fact that, while it was universally 
believed that his revenues were immense, and so they should 
have been, and his rank placed him under the necessity of main- 
taining a certain and a most expensive style of life, he was, from 
the frauds and injustice of his enemies and of the crown, suffering 
the pangs of actual poverty. Ovando had been ordered to 
restore to him and to his agents all his rights on the revenues 
and trade of Hispaniola, and also to examine his accounts and to 
ascertain all arrears due to him, and the damages sustained from 
his imprisonment by Bobadilla, the seizure of his house and other 
wrongs. The good and noble queen sent repeated orders in his 
behalf, but these were evaded, and the grossest injustice was 
now experienced by him. His personal demands on Ovando at 
San Domingo led to serious quarrels between them, and he could 
get from that insidious enemy only four thousand castellanos, 
when eleven or twelve thousand were due. He had been com- 
pelled to expend most of what his agents had collected in pro- 
viding a ship to bring him home, and now, in a letter to his son, 
he states that ten million maravedis were due to him annuall3\ 
Such was now his poverty that he was compelled to seek a loan 
where he could ; he was living, in fact, on the kindness of his 
friends, and it is known several of these generously relieved his 
most pressing wants. 

From his bed of suffering Columbus addressed repeated letters 
to the sovereigns, to his friends, to his son Diego, and others, 
urging the restitution of his rights and incomes, and strongly 
stating the grounds for their enforcement. He dwelt even more 
on the injustice done to his crew in the non-payment of their 



556 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

dues ; and such were their delays and disappointments, and such 
their appeals to him, that he was compelled to aid them from the 
money he borrowed from others. The action of the king and 
queen in suspending his offices and dignities, his rights and 
privileges, and placing a governor in his stead, was the greatest 
of his wrongs, and against this he cried out from his bed of pain, 
with persistent demand. 

The maladministration of affairs in the Indies, the wrongfs and 
injustices heaped upon the poor Indians, their almost entire 
annihilation, and that without their being brought to the Chris- 
tian faith, agonized his soul. He addressed to their Majesties 
the most frequent and urgent letters and petitions, and again and 
again solicited through himself and others a reply from them, 
but all in vain. His enemies seemed alone to possess the ear of 
the court ; and no man ever had such enemies. They boasted 
of the alleged and pretended failure of his last voyage ; the pass 
he went to discover had no existence ; the golden regions of 
Veragua had yielded no gold. The numerous rebels under 
Roldan and Porras, all now at large and unpunished, were so 
many accusers of the admiral. His son was at court, constantly 
importuning the sovereigns for a hearing and for justice ; but 
Isabella was suffering from an incurable malady, and Ferdinand 
was known to be hostile to him and his just rights. The Bureau 
of the Indies, availing themselves of the fact that the papers 
relating to the Porras insurrection had been sent back to San 
Domingo in the dismasted ship, refused to act in the case, uponi 
the pretext that there were no documents. Such protracted 
silence on the part of the sovereigns, such denials of justice at 
every turn, forced the admiral to attempt, at every risk, to go to 
court, and in person to importune the king and queen for justice. 

Such was the nature of his disease and such the severity of the 
winter, that the admiral's life seemed imminently in danger. To 
attempt such a journey was regarded as sure to prove fatal to 
such an invalid. He resolved to make every sacrifice in order 
to reach the ear of the king, and for that purpose to be carried 
on a bier. When the discoverer of the new world applied to the 
cathedral chapter of Seville for the same bier that had served to 
bring the body of Cardinal Mendoza, he was required to give 
security for its return to the cathedral in good condition — so. 
low was the credit of one who was then entitled to an income of 



ON COLUMBUS. 55/ 

ten million maravedis annually. Even when the security was 
given by Francisco Pinedo, it was found that the admiral's life 
would be most assuredly and fatally imperilled, and the visit to 
court had to be abandoned. In this severe disappointment he 
was compelled again to write long letters and appeals to express 
what he had intended to say in perSon at court. He could only 
write at night, owing to the malady in his hands. He pointed 
out in writing and in detail to his son the arguments and methods 
to be pursued in demanding justice for him. In one of his letters 
he writes, " The Indies are going to destruction ; the fire is at a 
thousand points ; I have had nothing, and I receive nothing of 
the revenue I own there ; no one will risk a claim for me in that 
country ; I live on loans." 

In the midst of such wrongs and sufferings the heart of Colum- 
bus received a new grief in the accounts he received of the sink- 
ing health of his good and amiable friend, the gentle Isabella, 
his queen. Her life was in fact despaired of when he had landed 
at San Lucar, and death was advancing on this peerless queen 
with steady and rapid strides. This accounts in part, no doubt, 
for the silence with which the admiral's appeals were received 
at court, for the cold, calculating, selfish, and ungrateful Ferdi- 
nand was now in his own person the court. The generous and 
noble benefactress of Columbus was actually dead when he wrote 
to his son at court the heart-rending sentiments with which he 
heard the news of her approaching dissolution. His grief at her 
sad condition is known to have greatly aggravated his sufferings 
of mind and body. Informed of her death, then hourly ex- 
pected, on December 3d, he had just written to his son, " May 
it please the Holy Trinity to restore our sovereign queen to 
health, for by her will everything be adjusted which is now in 
confusion." The noble and pious queen died on November 26th, 
1504, at Medino del Campo, in the fifty-fourth year of her event- 
ful and glorious life. In the midst of worldly grandeur and suc- 
cess she died a death accelerated by her sorrows — sorrows of a 
loving and tender soul ; sorrows of her maternal heart, which 
all the glories of earth could not heal. The death of her only 
son. Prince Juan ; then the death of her cherished daughter, the 
Princess Isabella, who had been to her also companion and 
bosom friend ; next the death of her grandson and heir-apparent, 
the Prince Miguel, and finally the evident development of mental 



558 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

infirmities in her daughter, the Princess Juana, and her domestic 
unhappiness with her husband, the Archduke PhiHp, had pre- 
sented to the hps of the queen the full chalice of earthly afflic- 
tions. While her public life as a sovereign was crowned with 
unsurpassed success and glory, she wasted away and sickened 
under the misfortunes of her own home and household. A pro- 
found and incurable' melancholy gradually subverted her fine 
constitution, intensified her physical sufferings, and carried her 
to the grave in the prime of her useful success and glory, and 
midway of a life that was generous, just, queenly, and Christian. 

In keeping with the simplicity of her character and with the 
severely disciplined experiences of this noble woman was that 
passage in her will which reads, " Let my body be interred in 
the monastery of San Francisco, which is in the Alhambra of the 
city of Granada, in a low sepulchre, without any ornament ex- 
cept a plain stone, with the mortuary inscription cut on it. But 
I desire that if the king, my lord, should choose a sepulchre in 
a church or monastery in any other part or place of these my 
kingdoms, my body be transported thither, and buried beside 
the body of his Highness, so that the union we have enjoyed 
while living, and which, through the mercy of God, we hope 
our souls will experience in heaven, may be represented by our 
bodies in the earth."* Her will, the last and most solemn act 
of her life, exhibits the grandeur of the queen with the tenderest 
conjugal affection of the wife, the purest sentiments of the mother 
united with the affectionate love she always bore to her subjects, 
the enterprise of a strong and well-balanced character with the 
faith, piety, and humility of the true Christian, a noble exaltation 
of character with an unfaltering charity. Tarducci speaks of 
" her humility of heart" and " her sweetest piety and tenderest 
melancholy," of " her singular merits as queen, which not only 
made her most celebrated among all the women that have worn 
a crown, but place her on a level with the greatest monarchs 
recorded in history," and of " her right to have her name indis- 
solubly joined to that of Christopher Columbus." f 

Mr, Irving writes of Isabella as follows : " Such was one of 

* King Ferdinand preferred in life that his body in death repose beside that of his- 
peerless queen ; and the remains of both are deposited in the royal chapel of the Cathe- 
dral of Granada. 

f Mr. Brownson's translation of Tarducci's "Columbus," vol. ii., pp. 351, 352. 



ON COLUMBUS. 559 

several passages in the will of this admirable woman, which 
bespoke the chastened humility of her heart, and in which, as 
has been well observed, the affections of conjugal love were 
delicately entwined with piety, and with the most tender melan- 
choly. She was one of the purest spirits that ever ruled over 
the destinies of a nation. Had she been spared, her benignant 
vigilance would have prevented many a scene of horror in the 
colonization of the new world, and might have softened the lot 
of its native inhabitants. As it is, her fair name will ever shine 
with celestial radiance in the dawning of its history." In glow- 
ing terms Prescott speaks of her exalted resignation in death, 
her graceful and benignant manners, her magnanimity, her piety, 
her strong and unswerving principles, her practical good sense, 
her activity in life and administration, her courage, her tender 
sensibility ; and while he alludes to what he calls her bigotry, he 
excuses it on the plea that it was common to her country and 
age. He should have considered that bigotry, in its proper 
sense, was wholly inconsistent with the exalted virtues and 
splendid intellect which he himself attributes to Isabella. Big- 
otry is a relative quality, and it may be truly said that Isabella's 
religious character was free from bigotry as understood in any 
odious light. 

While it would be quite a pleasant thing, and replete with 
useful advantages, to quote from numerous authors exalted 
tributes to the character of Isabella, our space compels us to 
adduce no further such pleasing testimony ; but the language of 
the Count de Lorgues, tinged though it be with his usual enthu- 
siasm, describes so beautifully and strikingly the ennobling rela- 
tions and the contrasts between her and Columbus, that our 
readers will not regard the following passages as unwelcome or 
inappropriate. 

" On being informed of her death, who shall tell the rending 
of heart and bitterness of grief he experienced ? The father who 
loses his only daughter feels no keener anguish of heart. To 
paint this unutterable affliction it would be necessary to measure 
in its subhmity that attraction for each other of the two souls 
which Providence had predestined to elaborate the greatest work 
of the human race. By its immensity the grief of Columbus 
bordered on the infinite ; its multiple suffering was as vast as the 
spirit that animated the body of that queen, which was stamped 



560 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

with an indelible majesty. It was the rending of a superior 
sympathy, rooted in tenderness of soul, fecundated with the 
splendors of faith, and vivified in Christ, who was its principle, 
its safeguard, and its immortal end. 

" His only stay in this world was gone ; he had lost more than 
a protectress, more than a sovereign — he had lost a friend. Yes, 
the queen loved with a maternal tenderness and honored with a 
respectful deference the man whom God had sent her to double 
the known space of creation. Isabella re-found in Columbus her 
own qualities — that is to say, her eminent virtues. She admired 
in him especially that modesty of a hero, that simplicity of a 
saint, and that artlessness of a child which the patriarch of the 
ocean preserved throughout the vicissitudes of his unequalled 
labors. An involuntary respect inclined the great and venerated 
Isabella toward this old man, breathing grandeur, transpiring 
the sublime, and beaming from this world with the impress of 
immortality. 

" Columbus always saw in the incomparable Isabella the type 
of purity, of constancy, and of fidelity to her word ; the flower 
of human graces and the poetry of humanity. To whom will he 
henceforth recount the ravishments which the marvels of un- 
known regions produced in him ? Who now will undertake new 
discoveries ? Who now will follow him in thought and thank 
him for his distant fatigues ? Who will come to aid him ? to 
realize in fine the chief object of his hopes — the deliverance of 
the tomb of the Divine Saviour ? When he understood that his 
loss was effected in the death of Isabella, he experienced a life- 
lessness of heart. His desolation was as mute as the tomb ; his 
unspeakable grief found no utterance. It is only known that his 
physical sufferings were redoubled by it." * 

Another joint tribute to Isabella and Columbus, from the 
graceful pen of one of America's foremost women, is too beauti- 
ful to be omitted — " It was not money that Isabella put into 
this scheme, even at a mortifying sacrifice, which secured its 
success, but her confidence in Columbus personally, and what 
we must call a wonderful enlightenment of mind and soul, by 
which she took in at a glance all the favoring possibilities until 



* Dr. Barry's translation of the Count de Lorgues' "Life of Columbus," pp. 517, 
518. 



ON COLUMBUS. $6l 

they became probabilities ; and these once grasped, all the 
chivalry of an exalted nature was pledged to their fulfilment. 
There was no withdrawing of confidence when once given. The 
sounding line of her womanly instinct, guided by the experiences 
of an extraordinary reign, had fathomed the sublime resources 
of Columbus and his motives, and no dastardly maligner could 
uncrown him for Isabella." * 

These tributes to the noble character of Isabella would be 
incomplete if we omitted the following from the ever-faithful 
and devoted heart of the admiral : " A memorial for thee, 
my dear son Diego, of what is at present to be done. The 
principal thing is to commend affectionately and with great devo- 
tion the soul of the queen, our sovereign, to God. Her life was 
always catholic and prompt to all things in His holy service ; for 
this reason we may rest assured that she is received into His 
glory and beyond the cares of this rough and weary world. The 
next thing is to apply yourself with zeal in everything and every- 
where for the service of the king, our lord, and labor to make 
him forget his grief. His Highness is the head of Christendom. 
Think of the proverb which says, ' When the head suffers, all 
the members languish. ' Therefore all good Christians ought to 
pray for his health, so that he ma}^ live long ; and we, who are 
under greater obligations to serve him than others, ought to do 
it with more zeal and diligence." This generous appeal and 
prayer from Columbus for Ferdinand, at this juncture in the 
affairs of the former, go further to enhance our admiration of his 
character even than his tribute of gratitude to Isabella. " It is 
impossible," says Mr. Irving, " to read this mournful letter 
without being moved by the simply eloquent yet artless language 
in which Columbus expresses his tenderness lor the memory of 
his benefactress, his weariness under the gathering cares and ills 
of life, and his persevering and enduring loyalty toward the 
sovereign who was so ungratefully neglecting him." f 

While Isabella, on her death-bed, grieved over the wrongs and 



* " Isabella of Castile, 1492-1892," by Eliza Allen Starr, p. 100. 

f Irving's "Columbus," vol. ii., p. 467 ; De'Rebus," Hisp. Mem.," lib. xxi. ; Peter 
Martyr's "Op. Ep.," lib. xviii., cap. clxxiii. ; Diego Clemencia's "Eulogy on the 
Catholic Queen ;" Mr. Brownson's translation of Tarducci's "Life of Columbus," 
vol. ii., pp. 350-52. 



562 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

misfortunes of her new subjects in the western world, and was 
indignant at the excesses and atrocities of Ovando, she with her 
dying breath exacted from King Ferdinand a promise that 
Ovando should be immediately removed from the ofifice of gov- 
ernor, which he had disgraced and sullied with innocent blood. 
It throws light upon the character of Ferdinand that, in the 
face of such a promise, made, it might almost be said, sacramen- 
tally, to his expiring queen and wife, he actually continued 
Ovando in office for four years more, and with him continued 
without interference his infamous despotism over the Indians of 
Hispaniola. Ovando knew his superior : the governor poured 
the ill-gotten treasures of the new world into the lap of Ferdi- 
nand. How, then, could Ferdinand interfere with the adminis- 
tration of Ovando ? Ovando thus became the superior of Ferdi- 
nand. 

Columbus was fully alive to the peril in which his affairs stood 
now more than ever since the death of his friend and patroness, 
the queen. In addition to his son Diego, who had been repre- 
senting him at court, he also sent thither his son Fernando, his 
brother Bartholomew, and his trusty friend Carvajal, to urge his 
suit before the king before his 'ever-vigilant enemies could com- 
plete their plans for his ruin. Knowing the character of Ferdi- 
nand, Columbus had instructed his friends at court to prudently 
keep his personal claims somewhat in the background, and to urge 
more immediately matters that would appeal to the sordid nature 
of Ferdinand. The king was thus given to understand that in 
Hispaniola there were great quantities of gold belonging to the 
crown, of which it was defrauded or delayed. He warned the 
king of the maladministration of the affairs of Hispaniola, of 
the dangers of further and worse troubles breaking out unless 
speedy measures were taken to give that country a good govern- 
ment ; and he urged and demanded of the king that he, the 
legitimate governor, should be sent back and restored to his pre- 
rogatives and offices in that island. He tendered his best and 
most faithful services to the king. 

It was about this time that Columbus received from Pope 
Julius II. an intimation that the Holy Father \vas not satisfied at 
not having heard from the admiral, as his predecessors had heard, 
in relation to the interests of religion in Hispaniola. Columbus 
immediately wrote to the Pope a full account of his discoveries ; 



•ON COLUMBUS. 563 

but to avoid all danger of giving his enemies a new pretext for 
accusing him unjustl}^ he sent copies of this document to Ferdi- 
nand, to Archbishop Diego de Deza, the new Archbishop of 
Seville, his old friend and former defender in the famous Council 
of Salamanca. It also transpired that Columbus was now in- 
formed by some members of the Bureau at Seville that three 
bishoprics, one of which was to be an archbishopric, were to be 
established in Hispaniola. Not only had the king refrained from 
giving the legitimate governor and viceroy of Hispaniola notice 
of this important movement, but he also gave no answer to a 
demand from Columbus to be heard upon a question in Avhich he 
was so deeply interested. What could be more significantly 
suspicious as to the motives of the king than this unjust silence, 
which was as discreditable to his motives as to his conduct 
toward Columbus ? The ecclesiastics nominated for the newly 
created sees of Hispaniola were the Franciscan Father Garcia de 
Padilla, the Doctor Pedro de Deza, nephew of the Archbishop of 
Seville, and the Licentiate Alonzo Manza, a canon of Salamanca, 
whose nominations had been approved at Rome. The Holy 
See pursued a more just and enlightened course on this subject 
than King Ferdinand. Columbus managed to communicate his 
views on the subject to the Papal Nuncio. Though the nomina- 
tions were approved the bulls were not expedited, nor did the 
bishops depart for their sees ; for Columbus, with characteristic 
firmness and with zeal for the good of the Church, insisted on 
being heard on so important a subject. This led to further 
delay and investigation, which resulted in tracing the project 
for the erection of sees in Hispaniola to Ovando, who thus con- 
ceived the plan in the interests of his own speculative enter- 
prises. It seemed rather strange that so sudden a need should 
have arisen for three bishops all at one time, especially since the 
natives had been annihilated rather than converted. Ovando 
concealed the obvious propriety of locating the archiepiscopal 
see at San Domingo as the principal city, for he did not desire 
to have in his capital so important a personage as an archbishop. 
So important a dignitary might overshadow his own office and 
importance ; hence the metropolitan see was to be erected at 
Xaragua, a district distant over two hundred miles, almost des- 
titute of inhabitants or dwellings, situated in the mountains, with- 
out a connecting road and without even an Indian village for the 



564 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

residence of the prelate — a see without a cit}' or a flock. Well 
has the Count de Lorgues exclaimed, " Xaragua ! that dolorous 
image, that frightful memento, which Ovando ought never to 
have recalled, a place that was burnt after the massacre, a heap 
of ruins and of ashes given up to silence, to desertion, and to 
dismay !" One of the bishoprics was to be located at Concep- 
tion, where there were about one hundred and fifty persons, and 
where beneath the cannons of the fort the pastor would » have 
ample protection against the hostile attacks of his intended flock. 
The remaining see was to be erected at Larez, a newly projected 
city, founded by Ovando himself, where his interests would be 
greatly promoted by the advantages of having a resident bishop, 
where permanency and prosperity would thus be secured to his 
enterprise, and his prospective properties developed. In fact, 
the project seemed to assume the aspect of a speculation, and 
that, too, by an official of the government', and to be based upon 
the credit of the Church. Not satisfied with what he had done, 
Columbus, in the midst of his poverty, secured by the aid and 
credit of a few friends sufficient funds for sending his brother, 
Don Bartholomew Columbus, to Rome, where he communicated 
the admiral's views to the Pope, and where, in 1505, he published 
a history of the admiral's first voyage, together with a chart of 
his discoveries. It resulted that the admiral's remonstrances 
were heeded at Rome, though not at the Spanish court ; the bulls 
were not forwarded, notwithstanding the entreaties of the Span- 
ish ambassador. The Count de Lorgues states that " before the 
Chief of the Church the confidential advice of Columbus pre- 
vailed over the assertions of the Spanish crown and the cunning 
of diplomacy." 

An interesting visitor now called upon Columbus at Seville. 
This was Americus Vespucius, who had been called to court by 
the king in relation to marine affairs, and who desired now to 
improve the personal acquaintance of Columbus, to offer his 
services, and perhaps obtain a letter of introduction. It is true 
that Americus Vespucius had first appeared on the scenes of the 
new world as a companion of Alonzo de Ojeda, in an expedition 
to Terra Firma fitted out under Ferdinand's general license and 
aided by Juan de Fonseca, who had fraudulently given Ojeda a 
copy of one of the admiral's charts ; and though the expedition, 
in its conception and conduct on the part of Ojeda, was little 



ON COLUMBUS. 565 

better than a marauding adventure, still Columbus, not given to 
ungenerous or narrow conduct, knew well that Americus was 
not responsible for the conduct of Ojeda, that the expedition was 
licensed by the king and Fonseca, and his acquaintance with his 
visitor for several years had not unfavorably impressed him. 
He received Americus kindly, accepted his proffered services, 
and gave him a letter of introduction to his son Diego at court, 
in which he calls him " a very good man." He authorized his 
friends at court to accept the services of Americus, though he 
enjoins secrecy in this, as though it would injure any one to 
espouse the cause of the fallen admiral if it became known. 
Little did Columbus then imagine, when he gave this letter to 
Americus Vespucius, that he was destined, though not de- 
signedly on his part, to carry away from him the glory of giving 
his name to the new world. The history of this interesting ques- 
tion I have already given in a previous chapter. 

Wearied at the refusal of the king to answer any of his re- 
peated letters, the admiral now determined again to make the 
effort of going to court, in the hope that his presence might prove 
more efficacious. The most easy way for him to travel was on 
a mule " saddled and bridled," as the gait is quieter than that of 
a horse ; but as it was forbidden by law to use mules in the 
saddle, he applied for and obtained the permission of the king to 
travel in that manner. Though the permit was obtained on 
February 23, he was not able to take the trip until May. In the 
mean time, he passed the Lenten season in Seville, and at his 
advanced age and with his infirm health he rigidly kept the fast, 
followed the strict observances of the Franciscans, and relaxed 
none of his austerities, though he was unable to leave his bed, 
and was spent with age, disease, and adversities. In May he 
started on his trip, mounted on a mule. He was taken ill at Sala- 
manca, but finally, after much suffering, he reached Segovia, 
where the court was then held. Ferdinand received the man he 
had so much injured with politeness and even with apparent 
favor and pleasure, but the admiral's title of viceroy and the 
respect due to his rank had disappeared on the death of the 
queen. This certainly was significant ; to the sanguine mind of 
Columbus it was conclusive. The king listened pohtely to his 
recital of his last voyage, of the mines of Veragua, of his ship- 
wreck at Jamaica, his abandonment by Ovando, the revolt of 



566 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

Porras, and his indignities received at the hands of Ovando. 
The king was polite but non-committal, and while he acknowl- 
edged the obligation of gratitude on the part of the crown, the 
cold and selfish Ferdinand found a wa}- of terminating the inter- 
view without granting redress. To a reminder a few days after- 
ward, which the king received from Columbus, he replied in a 
polite and cold manner, preserved a chilling courtesy and re- 
serve, and significantly referred to the admiral's gout and rheu- 
matism, with recommendations to take good care of himself, and 
even mentioned the appropriate medicines for him to take. 
Ferdinand had a significant nod by which he could always ter- 
minate an interview. 

The courtesy under which Ferdinand endeavored to conceal 
his true sentiments could not deceive the discerning and anxious 
eye of Columbus. He read the king's heart, and his coldness 
made him feel more than ever the loss of his friend and queen, 
the noble Isabella. After his repeated letters to the king, with 
a constant representation at court in the " persons of his sons, 
his brother Bartholomew, his faithful friends Diego Mendez, 
Alonzo Sanchez de Carvajal, and Geronimo, and the services of 
Americus Vespucius, and with the known friendship for him of 
Archbishop de Deza of Seville, who had formerly been the 
learned Dominican friar that defended his proposals before the 
Council of Salamanca, he had failed to gain justice from the king 
— what more than they had said in his behalf could the admiral 
now say ? His venerable and dejected appearance, his eloquence 
in pleading the most just of causes, did not move the selfish 
Ferdinand. His friend De Deza had been promoted from the 
bishopric of Palencia to the archbishopric of Seville, while his 
enemy, Fonseca, had been transferred from the bishopric of 
Cordova and appointed to succeed De Deza as Bishop of Palencia. 
Columbus, ever thoughtful of every measure for gaining his 
cause, had sent his son on an embassy to Archbishop de Deza, 
and now, on the promotion of Fonseca, he had written to his son 
to present his congratulations to the new Bishop of Palencia, 
thus showing a superiority to all personal animosities as well as 
a desire to remove or smooth down all impediments to his attain- 
ing justice from the crown. This same prelate and official, 
Bishop Fonseca, was known to be the most influential and potent 



ON COLUMBUS. . 567 

enemy the admiral had, the most implacable, and the one who 
had done him the greatest amount of injury. 

After the death of Isabella there was a rumor that she had 
mentioned Columbus in her will, and he took fresh hope from 
this circumstance. The rumor was a false one, though it is the 
opinion of historians that she refrained from doing so not from 
any indifference to liis just rights and claims, but from motives 
of delicacy ; for it was believed that such mention of him would 
not have aided his cause, while it might have stimulated the 
malice and machinations of his enemies. If she had in her will 
requested the king to have regard for the rights of the admiral, 
would the husband who had made a promise to his dying queen 
that, in charity for the poor persecuted natives of Hispaniola, he 
would remove Ovando, their persecutor, without delay, and had 
violated such a sacred promise — would such a husband have ful- 
filled a request relating to Columbus contained in her will ? He 
had already put his hand and seal, in conjunction with the queen, 
to a convention conceding to the admiral certain offices, titles, 
rights, revenues, and prerogatives, and he had again ratified 
the same, and when suspended had promised to restore them ; 
would any obligation have bound such a king against his inter- 
ests ? The cause of Columbus did not go against him by default. 
He fully comprehended his rights, and there was never a 
moment, even during the perils of his shipwreck and exile on the 
savage coast of Jamaica, and up to the moment of his death, that 
he did not earnestly and resolutely demand their restitution. 
The learned and judicious Tarducci, referring to Isabella's un- 
willingness, from motives of delicacy, to formally impose her 
wishes in regard to Columbus on her husband by her will, con- 
cludes by saying, " But I have no doubt that, with her dying 
words to Ferdinand, she fulfilled the last duties of a tender 
friendship and of a loyal and just sovereign toward the discov- 
erer of the new world." * Crippled in his hands by his unrelent- 
ing malady, he could only use them for conducting his important 
and voluminous correspondence in the dark and gloomy hours 
of the night, in which depressing hours his pen was busy with 
the protests and reclamations he unceasingly made for justice. 
It was just before he went to court mounted on a mule that the 



Mr. Brownson's translation of Tarducci's " Columbus," vol. ii., p. 355. 



568 _ OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

ships arrived from Hispaniola laden with gold for the king and 
many others, but with not a grain of gold for the sufferer. It was 
on this occasion that he wrote to his son at court, " Never was 
such injustice known ; 60,000 pesos left for me have disappeared. ' * 
The treatment which Columbus received from the king was the 
common talk of Seville, outside of the circle of his enemies. 
Great and sincere was the sympathy felt and expressed for him 
and his wrongs. It is supposed that this sentiment and influence 
led Americus Vespucius to make a pilgrimage of sympathy to 
the great discoverer. 

Discouraged as he was by the coldness and indifference of the 
king, Columbus never desisted from demanding his rights. 
Some days after his interview he addressed a letter to that end 
to the king, couched in language remarkable for its truthfulness, 
firmness, and candor, of which the first passage will convey an 
idea of its tone : " Most Potent King : God our Lord sent me 
hither miraculously to serve your Highness. I say miraculously, 
for I had presented my undertaking to the King of Portugal, 
who was more intent upon discoveries than any one else, and 
yet, in my case, his eyes, ears, and all his senses were so closed 
that in fourteen years I was unable to make him understand my 
meaning. I say miraculously also, because I received from three 
princes letters of invitation, which the queen (whom may God 
have in His glory) saw, and Dr. Villalano read. . . ."* This 
trenchant letter received a reply from Ferdinand at once wily 
and insincere ; the obligations of Spain to the admiral were 
admitted, but as his claims embraced so many different things, 
such as titles, government, pecuniary interests, accounts, indem- 
nification, and other matters, it was necessary to submit them to 
the judgment of some discreet and able person. Columbus 
readily consented to this arbitration, and he suggested Father 
de Deza, a friend of himself and a favorite of the king ; but he 
expressly declined to arbitrate his restitution to offices, dignities, 
and titles, and the government of the Indies, for these he held 
under the signatures of his sovereigns already ; and more than 
that he could not get, as the signatures of the king and queen 



* Mr. Brownson's translation of Tarducci's " Columbus," vol. ii., p. 357 ; " Colonial 
Documents," by Navarrete, pi. i., No. Iviii. ; Barry's De Lorgues' " Columbus," p. 525 ; 
Irving's "Columbus," vol. ii., p. 472. 



ON COLUMBUS. 569 

showed he was already entitled to them. The insincerity and 
want of good faith on the part of the king are manifest from the 
fact that he always defeated what he professed to be willing to 
agree to, by annexing in each case a condition which he knew 
Columbus would not and could not accept — ^the submission of his 
right to the government of the Indies. Of course the proposed 
arbitration fell through, as it was evidently the king's intention 
that it should. While the admiral repeatedly begged and urged 
his rights and claims, Ferdinand coolly smiled each time, and 
promised that he would consider them. This is not matter of 
inference, nor one resting on the common voice of history ; but 
the statement of the royal perfidy rests upon the testimony of a 
distinguished and conscientious contemporary, the good and 
loyal Las Casas, who wrote, " But as to actions, the king not 
only showed him no signs of favor, but, on the contrary, placed 
every obstacle in the way ; and at the same time was never 
wanting in complimentary expressions." 

This venerable, aged, and enfeebled admiral and discoverer 
despaired of getting even a show of justice ; he became dis- 
heartened. He thought he might secure something, now at l^ast 
while he was alive, by offering, as he did in positive terms, to 
leave everything to the king's generosity, assuring him that he 
had no desire to become involved in lawsuits with his own 
sovereign. He only begged for some decision to be made 
promptly, that he might see the end of his disappointments and 
sufferings, and secure some repose to his declining years. The 
king replied now in somewhat explicit terms, but they were 
only words. He said he entertained no intention of depriving 
himself of the admiral's services ; that he would give him full 
satisfaction ; that he could never forget that he owed the posses- 
sion of the Indies to him, and that he would not only give him 
what was his legal due, but would remunerate his great ser- 
vices from the estates of the crown. After such an explicit 
promise and pledge Columbus felt in duty and respect bound to 
believe the truth of his own sovereign, and to silently await his 
action. 

The perfidy of Ferdinand was so glaring, that the sympathies 
of all honest Spaniards were with the subject and against the 
sovereign. If he had followed the court from city to city when 
he was a suppliant for recognition and for a chance to serve 



570 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS. 

Spain in a signal manner, he was now still more obliged to pursue 
King Ferdinand from place to place, petitioning for justice for 
signal services already rendered. It was not the question now 
of adopting Columbus's proposals for the discovery of a new 
world ; it was a matter of rendering what he had promised and 
justly owed the discoverer. At every turn he received from the 
king nothing but cold smiles and courteous words. Was it not 
a shallow evasion of justice to refer the matter to the Junta de 
Descargos, a tribunal expressly appointed to carry into effect 
the will and discharge the obligations of the deceased queen, 
since the judges were appointed by the king, were his depend- 
ents, and as they could not, without open scandal, decide against 
Columbus, so they could not, without offending the king, decide 
against his known wishes ? The king prevented a decision. 
This junta with equal evasion did nothing but inflict delay upon 
Columbus. How could it be alleged in extenuation of Ferdi- 
nand's injustice to Columbus, that the vastness of the concessions 
stipulated in his favor now exceeded all possible anticipations, 
since the Indies far exceeded in extent and wealth Spain itself, 
and it would be making a subject equal to a sovereign ? The 
answer is too obvious, and is twofold : First, were not the domin- 
ions themselves out of which the concessions were to be satisfied 
proportionately increased, and was not the sovereign himself the 
gainer by the excess rather than the subject ? Second, could 
dishonesty be resorted to in anj^ event from a mere question of 
convenience ? It was equivalent to saying, We owe him justl}' 
too much, therefore we will pay him nothing. Perhaps the king 
desired to consult his daughter, the Princess Juana. Then why 
repeat and renew his promises, and why deny justice on such a 
pretext ? The very delay became a vital issue, since the life of 
Columbus was passing rapidly awa}-. Conscience had no weight 
with Ferdinand ; but why should he sully his name with such an 
infamy as this ? The entire Indies, so far exceeding all anticipa- 
tions, with all their gold and pearls and wealth, were not worth 
an immunity from payment purchased at the cost of such dis- 
honor. 

From Segovia, where the admiral had attended upon the pre- 
tended deliberations of the Junta de Descargos, and where the 
tactics of his enemies at Seville had been followed with the same 
cruelty, Columbus followed the court to Valladolid. At the 



ON COLUMBUS. 5/1 

latter place the venerable supplicant was again confined to his 
bed. Here, however, he wrote another urgent letter to the 
king, submitting all his rights to the king's generosity, only 
begging that his son Diego might be appointed to the govern- 
ment of the Indies. His days now but few, his aspirations seemed 
confined to securing for his son and family at least this recogni- 
tion of his services. In his letter to the king he writes : " It is 
a matter that concerns my honor. Your Majesty may do as you 
think proper with all the rest ; give or take, as may appear for 
your advantage, and I shall be satisfied. I believe that the 
worry caused b}^ the delay of my suit is the main cause of my ill 
health." 

Simultaneously with the above letter of Columbus to the king, 
he caused his son Diego to lay before the monarch a petition 
containing the same requests, and proposing that councillors be 
appointed by the king himself to assist him in the administration 
of Hispaniola with their advice. This simply elicited from the 
selfish and perfidious ruler the usual empty promises, which, as 
often broken as made, had now filled the measure of the admiral's 
sorrows and of the public disgust. Las Casas boldly asserts 
that the king's policy was to weary and harass the illustrious 
petitioner by delay into a renunciation of his just claims and the 
acceptance of Castilian titles and estates in commutation. This 
view is confirmed by the evidence of an offer from the king to 
Columbus of the fief of Carrion de los Condes and a pension. 
Columbus indignantly refused the unworthy offer. Surely it 
was not for this he had discovered the new world. Such was 
the dishonorable and unjust conduct of Ferdinand throughout, 
that he has laid himself open to the just suspicion of only waiting 
for the admiral's death to be relieved of importunity. The 
admiral himself has given utterance in the above-quoted letter to 
the king to the fact that his delays of justice had caused the 
present condition of his health. It cannot be denied that Ferdi- 
nand's injustice hastened and contributed to the death of Colum- 
bus. The latter now lost all hope. From his bed of sickness 
now, at Valladolid, he addressed to his good friend. Archbishop 
Diego de Deza, these stinging words : " It seems that his High- 
ness does not think fit to fulfil the promises which I received 
from him and the queen (who is now in the bosom of glory), 
under the faith of their word and seal. To contend against his 



572 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

will would be contending against the wind. I have done all that 
I ought to have done, and leave the rest to God." The echo of 
these indignant words of the great discoverer and benefactor of 
Spain is repeated in our own time by the universal voice of his- 
tory, as expressed by the following indignant passage from the 
classic pen of our distinguished countryman, Mr. Irving : " The 
cold and calculating Ferdinand beheld this illustrious man sink- 
ing under infirmity of body, heightened by that deferred hope 
which maketh the heart sick. A little more delay, a little more 
disappointment, and a little more infliction of ingratitude, and 
this loyal and generous heart would cease to beat ; he should 
then be delivered from the just claims of a well-tried servant, 
who, in ceasing to be useful, was considered by him to have 
become importunate."* 

The admiral entertained now the hope — it was his last hope — 
that Ferdinand might be delaying in order to consult the new 
Queen of Castile, the Infanta Juana, who succeeded her mother 
in the government of that kingdom, hoping to find that she had 
inherited the virtues and rectitude of her illustrious mother, and 
that he would find in her that justice which had been denied him 
by her father. The new queen arrived accompanied by her 
royal consort, and was met at Laredo by Ferdinand and his 
entire court. Columbus, as if inspired with the fire, energy^ 
ambition, and indomitable spirit of his stronger days, would have 
gone in person to greet the new sovereign of Castile. A new 
relapse of intense violence defeated this purpose. His brother^ 
Don Bartholomew, in his stead, presented his letter of congratu- 
lation, in which he gave the assurances of his best loyalty and 
services, lamenting the disease which deprived him of the privi- 
lege of going in person, as he had intended, to receive the queen, 
expressing the hope of yet rendering the crown most valuable 
services, and expressing the same petition for the restoration of 
his rights. Accorded an audience by the two sovereigns on May 
7th, Don Bartholomew obtained a hearing. Ferdinand was 
there ; he was, of course, the master spirit of the occasion ; the 
royal answer was given in promises, and accorded with the per- 
fidious conduct of the past — polite attentions and promises of 
speedy action. This was the last public act of Columbus ; it was 



* Irving's " Columbus," vol. ii., p. 476. 



ON COLUMBUS. 573 

the last insult Ferdinand had the privilege of heaping upon him. 
With the admiral, this last expression of his hope and confidence 
that he might yet accomplish some brilliant, extraordinary, and 
valuable enterprises for his sovereigns and his country, was the 
last flicker of the exhausted candle ; the hope was dazzling, the 
offer was magnanimous ; its cold and deceptive reception was 
perfidious ! It was of Ferdinand ! 

It is interesting and instructive to recall the expressions of 
indignation which have been uttered by historians at the ingrati- 
tude experienced by Columbus from his king. Tarducci says : 
' ' The long years spent in running from one place to another to 
beg audience of kings, ministers, and grandees of the kingdom ; 
the mocker}' and scorn with which he was received and repelled 
on every side ; the struggles he underwent in support of his 
ideas ; the fatigue, perils, and distress he suffered in carrying 
them out, and the grandeur of his achievements and the enthu- 
siasm he had aroused on every side ! And now, after enriching 
Spain with so many regions and such treasures as no human 
tongue ever told of, after changing by his discoveries the face 
of the known world, doubling the known space of the globe, he 
was now groaning in abandonment and contempt, in a wretched 
lodging-house, and had to beg for a loan of money to buy a cot to 
die on ; and those who had ridiculed his undertaking were tri- 
umphing in wealth and ease, in power and honor !" ^ 

The following eloquent though extravagantly expressed pas- 
sage from the Count de Lorgues is no less appropriate in this 
place : " He saw disappearing indefinitely the deliverance of the 
Holy Sepulchre — the ardent desire of his whole life — at a time 
when everything seemed ready for its realization. Gold now 
abounded, and every new arrival promised for the next season 
greater riches ; but there was nothing for Columbus ! What 
must he now have felt in his heart ? Still no complaint was heard 
from him. Confining in the depths of his loneliness the bitter- 
ness of his sorrows, he offered them to Him who had borne the 
cross. This calm in the height of affliction, does it not reveal 
something else besides virtue ? Can we find in history an ex- 
ample similar to it ? Philosophy is as incapable of inspiring as 
it is of explaining this sublime resignation. It was because the 



Mr. Brownson's translation of Tarducci's " Life of Columbus," vol. ii., p. 362. 



574 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

messenger of salvation held the crucifix before his eyes. He 
remembered that our Divine Lord, coming to bring to poor 
humanity more than a world, and more than all the worlds — the 
Truth, the Way, and the Life — was calumniated, persecuted, 
bound with cords, scourged, given as a spectacle to the crowd,^ 
and delivered in death, notwithstanding His declared innocence. 
Like Him, the revealer of the globe remained silent ; and, like 
Him, he pardoned his enemies." * 

What could be more just than the following sentiments from 
Mr. Irving : " Attempts have been made in recent days by loyal 
Spanish writers to vindicate the conduct of Ferdinand toward 
Columbus. They were doubtless well intended, but they have 
been futile ; nor is their failure to be regretted. To screen such 
injustice in so eminent a character from the reprobation of man- 
kind is to deprive history of one of its most important uses. Let 
the ingratitude of Ferdinand stand recorded in its full extent, 
and endure throughout all time. The dark shadow which it 
casts upon his brilliant renown will be a lesson to all rulers, 
teaching them what is important to their own fame in their 
treatment of illustrious men." f 

The voices of many other eminent historians, raised in unison 
with those whose language I have given, could here be quoted 
in proof that the verdict of mankind has been rendered in con- 
demnation of the ungrateful, selfish, unstatesmanlike, disloyal, 
cruel, and deceptive treatment which Ferdinand extended to 
Columbus. In proportion as the king realized the grandeur of 
the services rendered by Columbus he should have honored and 
rewarded the benefactor. In proportion as the countries he 
discovered proved vast and almost unbounded, his gratitude to 
the discoverer should have increased. In proportion as the 
riches of the Indies poured into the lap of Spain and into the 
royal exchequer, so should have been increased the reward of 
the man who gave them to his countr3^ The very grasping 
tenacity with which Ferdinand held on to all he had gained b}' 
Columbus, proves that he knew better than any one the value of 
his gains. When he promised titles, honors, dignities, estates, 
revenues, and jurisdictions to Columbus, all was conjectural and 



* Dr. Barry's translation of De Lorgues' " Columbus," p. 531. 
f Irving's " Life of Columbus," vol. ii., p. 483. 



ON COLUMBUS. 575 

speculative ; the reward was made conditional upon success ; 
now that success was attained, the benefits were sordidly grasped 
and the promised rewards cruelly withheld. Could human per- 
fidy, ingratitude, or baseness exceed this ? Retributive justice 
is to be recognized as a feature in God's government of the 
world ; and why should it not be ? Events are so startling ! 
The splendid possessions of Spain, which she got by the genius 
and services of Columbus, and for which she refused to com- 
pensate him even as she had promised, have been wrested from 
her grasp ; and Cuba, the Queen of the Antilles, remains only as 
a mere souvenir of her former vast and opulent possessions. 
Who does not recognize the justice of the retribution ? In the 
mean time, Columbus receives the homage of mankind. 

When we contemplate the magnificent achievements of Colum- 
bus — his vast discoveries, his genius, his enterprise, his labors, 
his originality, the world-wide scope of his undertakings, from 
the discovery of a new world to the rescue of the Holy Land and 
the conversion of all nations to Christianity — it is hard to realize 
and humiliating to record the fate of such a man. Still more 
abhorrent to our sense of justice that such a benefactor of his 
country and of his kind should have died in neglect, poverty, 
distress, and injustice. 

While Don Bartholomew, his brother, was making the last 
appeal for him in the presence of royalt}^, Christopher Columbus 
felt that his malady was growing alarming, and that his end was 
near. In the denial of all earthly rewards, this devout Christian 
now looked confidently yet humbly only for the rewards of 
heaven. Few death-beds recorded in history have been so re- 
assuring, so dignified, so heroic as that of Columbus. As his 
disease became daily more alarming, he realized the approach of 
death. On May 19th he perceived, that the end was at hand. 
Calling to his aid all the resources of grace and all the promised 
rewards of virtue, he heroically and calmly resigned himself to 
the inevitable. With a calmness that we have often seen him 
exiprcise in the most trying circumstances, he first determined to 
provide for his family and for his descendants by a proper dis- 
position of his affairs in this world. His whole testamentary 
disposition was the work of different times and of different epochs 
of his life. His first will was made in 1498, and now he made a 
codicil to it before his approaching death. In 1502 he also made 



576 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

a will, which he confided to his friend, Father Gaspar Gorricio, 
a Carthusian monk. This will has never come to light, and is 
supposed to have been suppressed by the admiral's family shortly 
after his death for prudential reasons. These reasons are left to 
conjecture. When he made his first will in 1498 he was in the 
zenith of prosperity and glory, and in it he poured forth the 
sentiments of gratitude toward the Spanish sovereigns, much in 
keeping with his generous nature. But in 1502 his star was on 
the wane ; he had already experienced the ingratitude of his 
king ; and it is supposed that he omitted these expressions from 
the new will then made, for he was then smarting under the in- 
justice done him in sending Aguado, Bobadilla, and Ovando in 
succession to Hispaniola, his imprisonment and chains, and his 
suspension from power ; and it is conjectured that he spoke with 
bitterness even of the treatment he had received. In 1505 he 
made a codicil, dated August 25th, in which he firmly asserts that 
he '* had made them [the king and queen] a present of the Indies, 
as a thing of his own, and claims the right to reject the line of 
division agreed upon between Spain and Portugal ; and he asserts 
the correctness of his own line, which was established by the 
Pope — the papal line of demarcation. It is also said that on May 
4th, probably in the paroxysms of intense suffering, he made an 
informal codicil in his own hand, and written on the blank page 
of a little breviary given to him by Pope Alexander VI. Mr. 
Irving states that Columbus made a codicil to his will about 
May 19th, 1506, the day before his death ; but this is denied by 
the Count de Lorgues, and the fact is alluded to in a general 
way only by Tarducci, who simply says, " Sending for a notary, 
Columbus placed in his hands a codicil." 

The general result of the testamentary disposition of Colum- 
bus may be stated thus : His son Diego is constituted his uni- 
versal heir, and the entailed inheritance or mayorazgo, in the 
event of his death without male issue, was given to his brother, 
Don Fernando, and in the like case with him, it was given to his 
uncle, Don Bartholomew Columbus, descending always to the 
nearest male heir, and on failure of the male line it was to de- 
scend to the female nearest in lineage to the admiral. The in- 
heritor of the estate was enjoined against alienating or diminish- 
ing it, but rather to increase its revenues, and he was also admon- 
ished promptly at all times to respond to ever}^ duty of service 



ON COLUMBUS. 577 

to the crown of Spain, and to promote the Christian faith. One 
tenth of the revenues of the estate enjoyed by Don Diego was to 
be devoted to the relief of the poor members of the family and 
others in need, but not until the estate had become productive ; 
and from the bulk of the estate's revenues ample provision was 
made for Don Fernando and for Don Bartholomew. The will 
also provided for the erection of a chapel at the town of Concep- 
tion, in the Vega, Hispaniola, after the estate had become suffi- 
cient for that and all other purposes, and that a hospital should 
be connected with it ; and in such chapel masses should be said 
perpetually for the repose of the souls of himself, his ancestors, 
and his posterity. He provided for the poor of his lineage and 
family ; for the maintenance and residence of one member of the 
Columbus family and his wife at Genoa ; for the enlistment and 
equipment of an army for the recovery of the Holy Sepulchre ; 
for the maintenance of the sovereignty of the Spanish sovereigns 
and their successors, and for the aid of the Church and of the 
Holy See in case of schism or other trouble. The provisions were 
munificent in proportion to the grand expectations which Colum- 
bus entertained as to the just revenues from his estates, proper- 
ties, and offices in the new world. The will was substantially a 
renewal or confirmation of his will of 1497-98. So scrupulous 
was the illustrious testator in discharging every minute money 
obligation he had ever contracted, even those of gratitude, that 
he provided, among others, for the repayment of an assistance 
he had many years before received from a poor Jew of Lisbon, 
whom, on his not remembering his name, he described as living 
near the Jewry Gate. 

Columbus received all the sacraments and rites of the Church 
devoutly from the hands of his friends, the Franciscans, for 
which he asked for the last time. His death occurred at Valla- 
dolid on the feast of the Ascension, May 20th, 1506. Such was 
the obscurity to which the neglect of his king had consigned the 
admiral that no notice of his death can be found in the contem- 
porary chronicles of Valladolid. " It is hard to conceive," sa3^s 
Justin Winsor, " how the fame of a man, over whose acts in 1493 
learned men cried for joy, and by whose deeds the adventurous 
spirit had been stirred in every seaport of Western Europe, 
should have so completely passed into oblivion." Even Peter 
Martvr, who wrote so much of the stirring events of his career, 



578 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

did not mention his death, although about the time of its occur- 
rence he wrote five long and newsy letters from Valladolid. 
Montalboddo, who wrote an account of Columbus's early voy- 
ages, and revised it in 1507, had not even heard of his death, 
Madrignano, who translated the same work into Latin in 1508, 
had not heard of it. The Cronicon de Valladolid, extending from 
1333 to 1539, though containing the most minute details of local 
interest, makes no mention of the death of Christopher Colum- 
bus for the year 1506.* 

In the modest and austere chamber in which he died there 
were hanging, according to general tradition, upon the walls the 
chains which Columbus wore when he was brought back to Spain 
a prisoner, and by his express request his chains were buried 
with him. The chains, however, were not found among his- 
relics at the times of their several removals. The illustrious 
patient wore in his last hours the brown habit of St. Francis, 
His two sons, some of his officers and friends, and the Franciscan) 
Fathers attended the last moments of the expiring admiral, and 
gave him every consolation which religion alone affords in that 
supreme crisis. He addressed some edifying exhortations to 
those present. His mental faculties were clear to the last. He 
asked for the sacraments of the Church, and audibly joined in 
the prayers with which they were administered. He responded 
to the prayers for the dying as recited by the Franciscans. His 
last words were, " In maniis tiias, Domine, covinicndo spiritum 
vieuni' (" Into Thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit !"). 

The body of Columbus was carried to the Cathedral Church 
of Valladolid, and there received the most modest obsequies ; 
thence the Franciscans carried his remains and deposited them 
in the vault of their convent of Minors Observantines in the same 
city. Thus, as the Count de Lorgues observes, " Columbus, 
who first found an asylum among the Franciscans, received from 
them the last hospitality." The placing of his chains in his 
coffin, as related above, was not only in accordance with his own 
wishes, but was also in conformity with ancient custom, whereby 
in mediaeval times the relics of saints and martyrs were accom- 
panied with vials of their blood, the instruments of their torture, 
or images of them. Not only was his death unmentioned in con- 



* Mr. Brovvnson's translation of Tarducci's "Columbus," vol. ii., p. 365. 



ON COLUMBUS. 579 

temporary Spanish documents, but in following years he was 
mentioned as still living in works published in other countries of 
Europe. 

At the court of Ferdinand his name was forgotten, only to be 
recalled once by the king with frigid ceremony, when on June 
2d, 1506, he ordered the gold and other objects of the admiral 
to be sent to his son, Don Diego, without giving the least ex- 
pression to any sentiment of regret, gratitude, or honor for his 
memor}-. But as the progress of discoveries in the great fields 
pointed out by Columbus revealed more and more every year 
the grandeur and vastness of his discoveries and services, an 
immense glory was accorded to his name, and Ferdinand was 
aroused by the expanding fame of his great achievements to 
make some tardy and reluctant concessions to public sentiment. 
He ordered the remains of the admiral to be removed with pomp 
and ceremony from the Franciscan convent at Valladolid to 
Seville, where a solemn service was performed at the cathedral, 
after which the Carthusians bore his remains beyond the Guadal- 
quiver to their convent vaults in St. Mar}^ of the Grottoes, and 
placed them in the chapel of St. x\nn. This was done at the ex- 
pense of the crown in the year 15 13, while some have made the 
year 1509. Then it was that Ferdinand gave the admiral, accord- 
ing to a very doubtful tradition, whom he had so grossly wronged, 
an epitaph, written by himself, 

" FOR CASTILLA Y FOR LEON 
NUEVO MUNDO HALLO COLON."* 

(" For Castile and Leon Columbus found a new world.") In 
1526 the repose of his mortal remains was again disturbed, but 
only to receive by his side those of his son Diego, his heir and 
successor. On June 2d, 1537, the widow of Don Diego Colum- 
bus, Donna Maria de Toledo, obtained from Charles V. permis- 
sion to remove the remains of Columbus and his son to San 
Domingo, in Hispaniola, the city he had founded, and to which 
he had given as a coat-of-arms the lion and the tower of Isabella, 
the cross and the key, the emblems of the Church ; and now 
these venerated relics were deposited with great solemnity in a 



* There is another rendering of this epitaph, which is followed by Mr. Irving, the 
Count de Lorgues, and others. It is given at the head of this chapter, and represents 
Columbus as giving rather than as finding a new world for Spain. 



58o OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

recess in the sanctuary of the cathedral, to the right of the main 
altar, according to the Count de Lorgues, but according to 
Tarducci, in the largest chapel of the cathedral. It is also said 
that the removal to San Domingo was in compliance with his 
own wish. But in 1795, nearly three centuries afterward, by 
the Treaty of Basle between France and Spain, Hispaniola 
became a possession of France, when Spain, desirous of always 
possessing the remains of Columbus, arranged for their removal 
to Havana, Cuba. Accordingly, on December 20th, 1795, the 
honored remains were disinterred with great pomp and with the 
most solemn obsequies in the presence of the clergy, the gov- 
ernor, and the assembled people ; and after having been carried 
to the national 'vessel provided for that purpose were borne to 
Havana, and there again interred with grand funereal ceremonies 
and military honors near the great altar of the cathedral to the 
right of the sanctuar3^ The notables of the Church and of the 
State attended these magnificent and solemn ceremonies. It 
was now svipposed at last that the admiral's remains were at 
rest. But in 1877 the world was startled by the announcement 
from San Domingo, that in excavating near the high altar of the 
cathedral of that city the casket containing the remains of Colum- 
bus was discovered still remaining there. The remains were 
authentically recognized in the presence of all the ecclesiastical, 
military, and civil authorities, and such was the intense interest 
felt in this strange yet grateful discovery, that immense numbers 
of the people turned out to contemplate the venerated remains. 
This singular state of things, on investigation, came to be ex- 
plained. In this place were deposited not only the remains of 
Columbus, but also those of his son, Diego, and of his grandson, 
Luis, his two successors in the government of Hispaniola. In 
the many alterations and changes made from time to time in the 
great chapel of the Cathedral of San Domingo, the main altar 
was several times moved and its location changed ; and though 
the three caskets containing the mortal remains of Columbus 
and of his son, Diego, and his grandson, Luis, had never been 
changed in location, yet the changes in the sanctuary and chancel 
left doubt as to the precise location of each. In 1877 Monsignor 
Rocco Cocchia, Bishop of Orope and Apostolic Delegate to 
San Domingo, while having the chapel repaired, discovered 
the casket, which on examination proved not to be the one con- 



ON COLUMBUS. 581 

taining the remains of either Don Diego Columbus or of Don 
Luis Columbus, but, to the astonishment of all, that of the 
admiral himself, which it was believed had been removed in 
1795 to Havana, Though the dates showed clearl}' that the 
casket then found contained the remains of Christopher Colum- 
bus, the investigation was continued for the two caskets which 
contained the bones of the other two admirals, Don Diego and 
Don Luis, and on finding another casket, it was discovered on 
investigation to contain only the remains of Don Luis, for it was 
clearly inscribed with his name. It was thus made manifest that 
the remains of Christopher Columbus and of his grandson, Don 
Luis Columbus, remained in the Cathedral of San Domingo, and 
hence the remains removed in 1795 were clearly those of Don 
Diego Columbus, and not those of Christopher Columbus, as 
was intended and believed to have been the case. It was always 
reported and believed in San Domingo that the casket removed 
to Havana in 1795 was not that of Christopher Columbus. Visit- 
ors to San Domingo are to this day shown in the cathedral 
the casket claimed to contain the remains of the admiral. These 
visits are regulated by official rule, must be made after official 
permission obtained in the presence of three officials, and all 
present are required to make an entry of their visit and to sign 
it in a book kept for that purpose. After these preliminaries 
the glass casket is brought from a vault ; it is rather small, being 
about three feet long, two feet high, and one and a half feet 
wide, and is crossed with two bands sealed with the State seal. 
Within the glass casket is an open zinc box containing the wasted 
bones of the illustrious deceased, and also a glass vase or jar 
containing the dust of disintegrated bones. At the time of the 
discovery of these relics a small silver plate was found with 
them, with an inscription, by which they were identified, and 
this is now suspended within the casket. Visitors are also shown 
where and how the remains were discovered in 1877. These 
details are disputed by the Academy of Histor}^ at Madrid, and 
the remains of Columbus are claimed to be resting in the Cathe- 
dral of Havana ; but the claim of San Domingo seems the 
stronger. 

At the mouth of the river Ozema still stand the ruins of the old 
fort or castle, at the foot of a hill now called Santo Carlo, in 
which Columbus was imprisoned by Bobadilla. It is constructed 



582 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

of brick, and is in good preservation. But the race whom it was 
intended to keep in subjection have entirely disappeared, and 
even the Spanish settlement made about the fort in 1497 has 
almost wholly vanished. The once busy and bustling spectacles 
in which the loyal Ballester and the disloyal Roldan took an 
active part have been succeeded by dense forests of majestic trees. 
But the city of San Domingo now has a population of about 
fifteen thousand, and has interesting relics of Columbus, while 
the old Spanish town which grew up around the fort was de- 
stroj'ed by an earthquake on the morning of April 20th, 1564, 
during the celebration of mass. The ruins of the old Spanish 
church and convent are still visible. The destroyer, Time, has 
almost obliterated the traces of Columbus and his successors. 
Even the Spanish flag has been supplanted by that of France, 
and there is little left besides the island of Cuba of the great em- 
pires which Spain, by the genius of Columbus, founded in the 
new world ; but in the midst of such mutations and decay, the 
fame of Columbus, the prisoner at Fort Conception, the admiral 
in chains, has electrified the world, and is to-day more glorified 
than wdien he entered the royal city of Barcelona, the discoverer 
of a new world returning in triumph. 

The family of Columbus at the time of his death consisted of 
two sons, Diego and Fernando, the former of whom was his 
general heir and legatee, and the latter became his historian. 
Don Diego, after his father's death, continued to demand from 
King Ferdinand, as his illustrious father had done before him, 
the restitution of the offices, titles, and rights to which he had 
succeeded under the admiral's will, as well as by the stipulations 
of the sovereigns. For two years he sought justice in vain, and 
in 1508, on the return of Ferdinand from Naples, the young 
admiral frankly and firmly demanded of the king " wdiy his 
Majesty would not grant to him as a favor that which w^as his 
right, and why he hesitated to confide in the fidelity of one who 
had been reared in his house." To this unanswerable appeal 
the unjust monarch replied that while he could confide in Don 
Diego personally, he could not venture to confide so great a 
trust to his children and successors. To this evasion the son of 
his father replied that neither justice nor reason could sanction 
his deprivation of a right on account of the possible sins of his 
c]^ildren who were unborn, and might never come into existence. 



ON COLUMBUS. 583 

Intent on vindicating the memory of his father and his own, 
.and the rights of his descendants as his successors, Don Diego 
Columbus requested and obtained from King Ferdinand permis- 
sion to institute a suit for the purpose before the Council of the 
Indies. This celebrated suit was commenced in 1508, was re- 
sisted with persistent ingratitude and sophistry by the king, and 
after lasting several years, was finally decided unanimously in 
favor of the young admiral and successor of Columbus. Even 
then the king delayed or declined to carry out the decision of 
the tribunal to which he consented, in favor of Don Diego. 
The latter, however, about this time gained another suit, for he 
married Donna Maria de Toledo, daughter of Fernando de 
Toledo, Grand Commander of Leon, and a niece of Don Fabrique 
de Toledo, the celebrated Duke of Alva, a brilliant general and 
favorite of the king. The bride's father and uncle were cousins 
germane to Ferdinand. It was a tribute to the glory shed by the 
great achievements of Columbus upon his family that his son was 
readily received into one of the proudest and most distinguished 
families of Spain. The most powerful family influence was now 
exerted on the king, and this proved more powerful and effica- 
cious with him than the claims of justice. The importunity of 
Don Diego Columbus and his friends was now rewarded, but 
only in part. The king granted to him the dignities and pow- 
ers bestowed upon Ovando, whom he recalled from Hispaniola. 
He persistently refused to the new governor the title of viceroy, 
which was always repugnant to him, even in the days of the 
admiral. 

The administration of the second admiral was a succession of 
troubles and embarrassments, of old and new enmities and litiga- 
tions, which partly ran through the reigns of Ferdinand and 
Charles V. Like his father, he died in the pursuit of justice 
denied. Don Luis Columbus was also compelled to seek his 
inherited rights by a suit against the crown, and obtained the title 
of captain-general ; but by vexatious delays and denials of justice, 
a representative of the family of Columbus was compelled by 
compromise to commute all the concessions made to the admiral 
by Ferdinand and Isabella for the title of Duke of V'eragua and 
Marquis of Jamaica, and a pension. The succession to the title 
and the pension passed into the collateral Hne, and finally in 1608 
into the female branch of the family, and in the 3'ounger branch 



584 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

of the royal house of Braganga by marriage. The present repre- 
sentative of the admiral is the Duke of Veragua, who is said to 
bear a family resemblance to his distinguished ancestor. The 
present Duke of Veragua manifested a lively interest in the 
celebration of the four hundredth anniversary of the discovery 
of America, which he, accompanied by his family, attended as 
the guest of the American people. The blood of Isabella was 
similarly represented here by the Infanta Eulalie. 

The remarkable character of Columbus is chiefly to be studied 
in his greatest enterprise, the discovery of America. In an age 
given, in an extraordinary manner, to maritime adventure and 
discoveries, he was the only man that conceived the idea of dis- 
covering a new world. In an age when gigantic strides had 
been made in extending the limits of the known earth and in dis- 
covering new portions of its surface, Columbus eclipsed all other 
discoverers by the unparalleled grandeur, importance, and value 
of his discoveries. In proportion as his work surpassed that of 
all others, so are his character and fitness, which achieved it, to 
be graded above others. The vastness and grandeur of his con- 
ceptions alone enabled him, of all men then living, to originate 
the great work which he proposed and achieved. His work was 
not the joint or combined result of the study or efforts of several 
minds ; it was the sole achievement of his own genius. As Mr. 
Irving says, it was the offspring of his own mind. The world 
was against him. He had neither name nor fame, nor family 
influence, nor alliances, nor wealth to sustain him in the herculean 
task ; but he stood alone and unsupported at the courts of Por- 
tugal and Spain, just as he stood alone at the gate of the Fran- 
ciscan Convent of La Rabida. These facts show not onl}- great 
originality of mind, thought, and study, but the long 3'ears of 
waiting, of disappointment, and of opposition which he encoun- 
tered and overcame place him before us as a man of extraordinary 
•will-power, perseverance, and courage. It is true that other 
qualities aided in this, but they were personal and characteristic 
traits and qualities of Christopher Columbus. His vivid and 
soaring imagination added greatly to the forces by which he 
carried his point, and it was the singular blending of the judg- 
ment and of the will with the contemplative and theoretical, the 
union of the real with the poetical, that enabled him to over- 
come all obstacles. While the Northmen, in the pursuit of their 



ON COLUMBUS. 585 

seafaring habits and roving tendencies, came upon portions of the 
Western Hemisphere, the event was not the result of geographi- 
cal design or of study, and it had no effect at the time in revolu- 
tionizing the geography, the navigation, the commerce, the civ- 
ilization of the world. Bold, brave, and indomitable as were the 
Norse discoverers of the tenth and succeeding centuries, and 
much as their achievements and spirit are to be admired and 
praised, the great achievement of Columbus presents itself in a 
different light to the historian and philosopher. There is no 
just or historic conflict between these two remarkable chapters 
in the history of the world. The first was the result of national 
traits and character, habits and tastes, based immediately upon 
accident rather than study or problems of science, and was tran- 
sitory, leaving the world in such utter ignorance of the existence 
of the American continents that their discovery by Columbus 
was new, startling, scientific, and personal. To Columbus alone 
is due the grand result ; all who participated in giving the under- 
taking assistance in ships, money, and men were his converts ; 
and when the material means were provided, it was he in person, 
his genius and character dominating over unparalleled difficul- 
ties, that achieved the grand result. The first to conceive and 
announce an unseen and unknown world, and a route to it un- 
known and untried, he was the first to see, in his untiring vigils 
at night, the flickering light on the shore that was carried by a 
man of an unknown race — the beacon that revealed the new world 
to its illustrious discoverer. 

Columbus was no ordinary man ; he loomed up as a colossal 
figure among the men of his age. While ridiculed as a dreamer, 
a lunatic, he was the only man on earth that possessed the secrets 
of knowledge that revolutionized the world. He was a man of 
great and varied learning, though not of scholastic or scientific 
training, and he possessed the faculty of practically applying 
what he knew to the most valuable achievements and results. 
Having followed the sea from the age of fourteen, his knowledge 
of navigation, seamanship, and their kindred sciences was un- 
equalled. His travels over seas and his visits to many lands 
made him acquainted with the earth's geography, and his pur- 
suit as a map-maker in his days of poverty and delay gave to his 
profound study of the earth a detailed and practical direction, 
which made him one of the greatest of living cosmographers. 



586 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

His travels also gave him an actual knowledge of men, and of 
various nations and languages, which prepared him to lead and 
rule over men. He was also a man of advanced and progressive 
learning, the result of study and his converse with books and 
men. He was a thorough student of the Scriptures, of both the 
Old and New Testaments, and had them ready at all times for 
the support of his views and theories. His " Collection of 
Prophecies on the Recovery of Jerusalem and the Discovery of 
the Indies" is a remarkable instance of devout and ingenious 
research and application, and it is interspersed with poetical 
effusions by the admiral of no mean character. He was familiar 
with the patristic theology and works of the Fathers of the 
Church ; had studied the works of the Arabian Jews, and was 
quite conversant with and greatly influenced in his theories and 
opinions by the geographical writers of ancient and mediaeval 
times. J. G. Kohl, a celebrated German traveler and scholar, 
said, " There was something visionary in Columbus's nature, 
3^et when the time for action arrived he was never found wanting 
in decision and energy." 

Columbus did much to enlighten the age in which he lived, to 
remove old and superstitious views of the earth, and to solve 
some of the most difficult problems of nature. With all the 
engrossing and harassing cares and solicitudes of his office and 
undertaking, he was a close and enthusiastic student of nature 
and of the phenomena of nature. His correspondence with Dr. 
Toscanelli, the learned cosmographer, and with Jayme Ferrer, 
the eminent lapidary, instances out of many of the varied 
learning of Columbus, and of his interest in and acquaint- 
ance with men of learning, and with the sciences in which they 
excelled. The services herein elsewhere recited as rendered by 
him to practical science are evidences of his scientific attainments. 
The blending of these solid accomplishments with a soaring im- 
agination, a poetic cast of mind, and an intellect fruitful in the- 
ories, add a rare charm to the character of this remarkable man. 

The administration of Columbus in new and unsettled lands 
and unexampled states of society was more difficult of success 
than the government of the most extensive and opulent empires 
of modern times. He knew how to accommodate himself to cir- 
cumstances, however unusual or appaUing, with rare sagacity. 
Tn the first contact of European civilization with the barbarism 



ON COLUMBUS. 587 

of the new world he had to exert powers of government, resort 
to measures of administration, and encounter stunning misfor- 
tunes and oppositions which are unexampled in history. He 
knew how to be stern in the administration of justice, and mild, 
generous, and forgiving whenever these were more efficacious 
than a resort to authority or physical strength, or were forced 
upon him by his situation. In his conflicts with the rebellious of 
his own people, he skilfully temporized when unable to cope in 
force with them, and he preferred to yield almost every point to 
save the very government, its viceroy, and its loyal subjects 
from annihilation. Had he met Roldan and his rebels in the 
open field, he would have been overpowered and his own valu- 
able life have been sacrificed. He was humane, gentle, just, and 
affectionate to the natives of the countries he discovered, and 
was only severe toward them when their conduct stood in the 
Avay of his accomplishing his mission of founding the Spanish 
Empire in the new world. Some facts in his history would seem 
to countenance the charge that he favored and practised the 
enslavement of the Indians, but from this charge he has been 
exonerated by the most considerate and learned of historians. 
While he restricted the enslavement of the Indians to prisoners 
of war and implacable enemies of the Spanish dominion, he was 
even in this but the follower of the ideas and practices of his age 
and country, and of the education in which he was reared. 
Neither he nor any of his sons or brothers, the companions in 
his life-work, owned slaves. The learned and humane Las Casas, 
the friend and liberator of the Indians, himself excuses Colum- 
bus on this head, as if he erred, it was in common with the most 
learned scholars and theologians of Spain at that time. Mr. 
Irving, in allusion to the enslavement of prisoners of war or 
rebellious natives, says : "In so doing he sinned against the 
natural goodness of his character, and against the feelings which 
he had originally entertained and expressed toward this gentle 
and hospitable people ; but he was goaded on by the mercenar}- 
impatience of the crown, and by the sneers of his enemies at the 
unprofitable result of his enterprises. It is but justice to his 
character to observe that the enslavement of the Indians thus 
taken in battle was at first openly countenanced by the crown, 
and that when the question of right came to be discussed at the 
entreaty of the queen, several of the most eminent jurists and 



588 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

theologians advocated the practice, so that the question was 
finally settled in favor of the Indians solel}^ b}^ the humanity of 
Isabella."* Had the views and measures of Columbus been 
executed, had his earnest recommendations to the crown, so often 
repeated and urged, been followed, the first settlement of the 
new world would not have been attended by wars and enslave- 
ment, nor would the Spanish settlements have been composed 
of lustful conquerors or avaricious adventurers, but by peaceful 
colonists and by prudent and just rulers, jurists, and governors. 
Columbus was a man in whom nature had been subdued and 
trained by study, meditation, prayer, and grace. Nature and 
humanity abounded in his character. His natural impulses were 
powerful, his sensibilities quick, the excitability of the man was 
intense, and his impressions were often suddenly received and 
strongly adhered to. ' Yet with all this natural manhood within 
him, he was conservative, reflective, judicious, just, politic, and 
prudent. His self-control was extraordinar}'. It was a rare and 
remarkable result of his self-culture, religious training, and con- 
scientious self-inspection, that he brought under subjection and 
control a temper naturally violent. He was benevolent and gen- 
erous. In the midst of the grossest ill-treatment, often repeated, 
he restrained his feelings and his conduct, he kept a fiery dis- 
position subject to reason by the strong powers of his mind, and 
he knew how to practise, under the most appalling wrongs, for- 
bearance, forgiveness, and benignity. He knew even how to 
supplicate when he was entitled to command ; to pardon when 
he might have punished ; to conciliate when he might have con- 
demned. Revenge was utterly foreign to his nature, and re- 
pentance always opened his generous heart, even to the greatest 
criminals. If he understood the art of governing the unruly, 
the capricious, and the wicked within his jurisdiction, his con- 
quest over himself was more extraordinary. In the most sudden 
emergencies he was calm, judicious, ready, and rich in expedi- 
ents. Such, too, was the exuberance of his character that in the 
midst of the greatest calamities the slightest turn of the tide in 
his favor rekindled his hope, inspired his fancy, nerved his arm 
for new enterprises, and lifted him up even from the bed of suffer- 
ing. When nearing his end, we have seen how a slight ray 



* Irving's " Columbus," vol. ii., p. 490. 



ON COLUMBUS. 589 

of hope seemed to restore him from the jaws of death to the 
brightest aspirations of his youth. 

The magnanimity of Cohimbus was one of his most shining 
traits of character. This virtue he practised not only in forgiv- 
ing the most lacerating injuries, in extending pardon to con- 
demned and repentant criminals, in his ordinary dealings with 
men of the world and of business, in the pleasure with which he 
rewarded and praised the good deeds and the services of others, 
but also in the munificence of his charities, the generosity of 
his alms to the poor, his ardent affection, not onl}' for his kindred, 
but also for his native country and his native city, and by his 
unbounded sympath)^ and support of the Church of which he 
was a devoted son. His magnanimous provisions out of the 
princely estates and revenues to which he was entitled, but 
which he never received, for the rescue of the Holy Sepulchre 
were in keeping with the grandeur of his soul and the expansive- 
ness of his heart. No other single individual of all Christendom 
ever conceived so grand and munificent a plan of public bene- 
faction. Not satisfied with his avowed intentions and efforts to 
carry this great scheme into effect during his lifetime, he made 
ample provision for it in his will. This trait of his character was 
also manifest in his relations with personal interests and with his 
methods of controlling and regulating the natural tendencies of 
men, especially in an adventurous age, toward self-aggrandize- 
ment. He has been accused of seeking through his great dis- 
covery the undue accumulation of wealth and estates. On the 
contrary, his demands never equalled his dues. Offices, dig- 
nities, titles, and estates he regarded as necessary to the support 
of his position before the world and in history, and so much was 
this the case that even in his days of pinching poverty he was 
compelled to keep up a state and dignity far beyond his actual 
means. Even when his fortunes were at their lowest ebb he 
insisted on all his rights, and would not commute them. All 
these things in a selfish and parsimonious man would seem grasp- 
ing, but in Columbus they Avere merely the means by which he 
aspired to be generous, charitable, liberal, public-spirited, and 
munificent in his public and private benefactions. It would have 
been incongruous for a man of his pre-eminence to be content 
with rewards inadequate to the social, official, and public duties 
he had to perform. Is it just to accuse of a grasping disposition 



590 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

one who had designed to spend millions in restoring the Holy 
Land to Christendom, who provided not only for the poor of his 
own blood, but also for the relief of all the poor of his native 
city ? Contrast if you will in this case the magnanimity of the 
subject with the sordid meanness of his own sovereign. In dis- 
covering new countries, he studied rather their availability for 
his country's good than any immediate gain or wealth to himself. 

His loyalty was chivalrous, inexhaustible, and manly. While 
waiting on the action of his sovereigns to accept his proposals 
he went into the field to serve them in their wars. The first- 
fruits of all his achievements were generously laid at the feet of 
his king and queen, whose banner he was the first to raise in 
many distant lands and countries. His loyalty was not the fruit 
of royal favor, nor did it confine itself to periods of prosperity 
and public patronage, as is the case with politicians and public 
men of the modern school. No amount of wrongs, injustice, 
ingratitude, or neglect could wring from him a line or an expres- 
sion of disloyalty. His admirable letters abound in the most de- 
voted sentiments toward sovereign and country. This manly 
trait in the character of Columbus is forcibly portrayed in the 
following eloquent passage : " It is impossible to read the letter 
descriptive of his fourth and last voyage without the deepest 
sympathy, the occasional murmurings and half-suppressed com- 
plaints which are uttered in the course of this touching letter. 
These murmurings and complaints are wrung from the manly 
spirit of Columbus by sickness and sorrow ; and though reduced 
almost to the brink of despair by the injustice of the king, yet 
we find nothing harsh or disrespectful in his language to the sov- 
ereign. A curious contrast is presented to us. The gift of a 
world could not win the monarch to gratitude ; the infliction of 
chains, as a recompense for that gift, could not provoke the sub- 
ject to disloyalty. The same great heart which through twenty 
years of disappointment and chagrin gave him strength to beg 
and buffet his way to glory, still taught him to bear with majes- 
tic meekness the conversion of that glory to unmerited shame." * 

With manly and robust virtues and traits of character there 
were united in Columbus many finer and more tender character- 

* R. H. Major's "Letters of Columbus," Hakluyt Society, London, 1847 ; " Me- 
morials and Footprints of Columbus," by General James Grant Wilson, Bulletin 
Am. Geog. Soc, 1884, p. 168. 



ON COLUMBUS. 59I 

istics, such as would adorn the soul of the noblest woman and at 
the same time refine that of the bravest man. Thus we observe 
on all occasions in his conversations, letters, and actions a refined 
sensibility, an exuberance of spirits, a chastened excitability, 
quickness to receive immediate yet deep impressions, and a highly 
poetic fancy. In keeping with these traits was his extraordinary 
susceptibility to extreme paroxj'sms of grief ; for we have on more 
than one occasion, when his sense of wrong or misfortune or 
injustice was greatest, seen him retire into his cabin at sea and 
burst forth in copious tears, with heartrending sighs and groans ; 
or he would sink under his afflictions into a deep lethargy or rise 
in heavenly vision, and receive thence most comfort, which he 
recognized as coming from above ; and again immediately there- 
after he would appear upon the most active and stirring scenes 
and events of human histor}-, buoyant, gay, hopeful, confiding, 
and generous. When Isabella received him with an outburst of 
sympath}^ and gentleness, after he had been brought back to 
Spain in chains, his heart was melted into grief and tenderness ; 
indignation gave way to softer emotions ; sobs and tears in the 
presence of the court relieved the wounded heart, and Cokimbus 
again stood forth the noblest historic figure of his age. He was 
always alive to impressions of joy or of grief, of friendship or of 
anger, of pleasure or of indignation. There Avas a natural and 
congenial friendship which bound together in unison the manly 
soul of Columbus and the gentle and womanl}' heart of Isabella. 
But in the character of Columbus religion made up the grand 
staple of his manhood. His faith was childlike, yet intelligent, 
aggressive, and heroic. Tender piety was conspicuous in his 
every act, and his profound devotion sustained him in many a 
crushing crisis. Such was his reliance upon divine Providence, 
and such his gratitude to God for every success of his life, that 
he seemed to hold perpetual converse with heaven. In all his 
trials prayer was his chief consolation. His great discoveries 
were always accompanied with public thanksgivings, and when- 
ever he landed in a newly discovered country, he, first of all, 
fell upon his knees to return thanks to God. His life of glory 
and success was a perpetual Te Deum ! In sorrow and affliction 
the sad but appealing melody of the Miserere resounded in his 
soul ! How grand it was in mid-ocean, or when approaching 
unknown and heathen lands, to hear resounding over the expanse 



592 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

of waters the beautiful notes of the Salve Regina or other re- 
ligious hymns at vesper time ! Before starting out on the most 
perilous voyages he placed all under the protection and invoca- 
tion of the Most Holy Trinity, and in the calendar of saints he 
had many patrons. To the Virgin Mother of God his devotion 
was as tender as that of a pious son. The names he gave to the 
islands and countries he discovered are but the records of his 
religious and devout emotions and grateful thanksgivings. To 
such a soul as his the gorgeous splendors of the Church and of 
her ritual were foretastes of the unspeakable glories and joys of 
heaven, of anthems sung by celestial choirs, of domes of majestic 
grandeur and endless vastness, of the beatific vision itself. Im- 
aginative, theoretical, visionary, enthusiastic, and poetic as he 
was, his religious sentiments never lifted him beyond the human 
sympathies of real life, for he was charitable to the poor, sym- 
pathetic with the afflicted, affectionate to kindred, generous to 
the Church, and tender to his kind. Religion was depicted in 
his honest and sincere countenance, imparting to it a sombre 
expression of piety, an exalted dignity, a gentle benignity, a 
sober and sedate carriage, a trustful composure, and a reveren- 
tial demeanor. In the midst of lewdness, lust, and infidelity he 
was continent and pure. His words were respectful, chaste, 
and considerate, and he never indulged in oaths, curses, irrever- 
ence, or levity. Such was the generosity of his nature that all 
the wrongs he suffered from men never embittered him against 
mankind. Such was his deep religious character and the fame 
of sanctity of his life, that some of his admirers have attributed 
miracles to him, and his earnest and sincere euloofist, the elo- 
quent Count de Lorgues, and others have agitated the question 
of his canonization as a saint. Life was too short for such a 
man. Any one of the grand services I have mentioned as 
rendered by him to practical science was enough to immortalize 
his name. He cherished three great and exalted aspirations in 
addition to the many magnificent works he performed and ser- 
vices he rendered to his race — the discovery of the new world, 
the circumnavigation of the earth, and the redemption of the 
Holy Land from the hands of infidels and its restoration to 
Christendom. These were no visionary schemes. The last had 
been attempted with temporary but brilliant success by the com- 
bined Christian armies of Europe, under the sanction, appeals. 



ON COLUMBUS. 593 

and benedictions of the popes, leaving behind great moral effects. 
It has even now been partially accomplished for practical pur- 
poses by the opening of the accesses to Palestine and of the 
gates of Jerusalem to Christian pilgrims. An interesting fact 
attracts our notice here, the assignment of the holy places in 
Palestine to the guardianship of that seraphic order, the Francis- 
cans — the ver}' same who befriended Columbus in his earliest 
efforts to attempt the discovery of the new world, whose apos- 
tolic missionaries he introduced into America, to whom he was 
devotedly attached in life and in death, whose religious habit he 
Avore in the streets of Seville, who attended him in his last 
moments, and interred his remains in their convent. This aspira- 
tion of the admiral may and certainly will be accomplished, under 
Providence, by the inevitable and evidently approaching disso- 
lution of the Ottoman Empire, which now holds political juris- 
diction over Judea. 

The second grand aspiration of Columbus, the circumnaviga- 
tion of the globe, under his leadership in revealing to mankind 
the geography and shape of the earth, and declaring it to be cir- 
cumnavigable, and accomplishing in person a great part of the 
transit when it was unknown and perilous, has now become an 
affair of easy and famihar accomplishment, so that even a child 
now can start from New York or any other commercial city in 
the world, and make the tour of the earth in an almost incredibly 
small number of days. 

The first great aspiration of Columbus was accomplished by 
himself, just as he had asserted that upon scientific data and 
principles it would be accomplished, and with unparalleled suc- 
cess. For as Cladera has so cogently expressed it, " His soul 
was superior to the age in which he lived. For him was reserved 
the great enterprise of traversing that sea which had given rise 
to so many fables, and of deciphering the mystery of his time." 
Not only did he accomplish this, but it was achieved by his per- 
sonal and individual genius, by his energy and perseverance, his 
contempt of obstacles and opposition, and with means inad- 
equate to so great an undertaking. Having discovered America 
in 1492, it was in the justice of God reserved for him also to be 
the discoverer of the continent. This last great achievement 
was executed by him in 1498 ; and here it is important to remark 
that for three years prior to this discovery of the continent by 



594 OLD AND NEW LIGHTS 

Columbus, under the unjust sanctions and licenses given by King 
Ferdinand to private adventurers to sail to the countries discov- 
ered by Columbus, in violation of his rights, and although his 
enemy, Fonseca, at the head of the Indian Bureau, encouraged 
and stimulated such adventures, and even supplied copies of 
Columbus's map to them, not one of the bold and reckless mar- 
iners of his time was able to wrest this eminent distinction and 
well-merited glory from the admiral. He alone fully realized 
the vastness, the grandeur, and the value of his discovery, and of 
the pre-eminent dignities, offices, rights, estates, titles, revenues, 
and jurisdictions it conferred upon himself. The wily Ferdinand 
thought these latter were too great for any subject to possess, 
showing that while he, too, saw the vast empires and boundless 
wealth thus bestowed by a subject upon him and his successors, 
he was incapable of rewarding Columbus according to his merits 
or even in accordance with and in fulfilment of his promise. 
Of all men Columbus alone saw. with a vision peculiar to him- 
self, the immensity of his achievement. It was the common and 
universal error of his age, in which he shared for want of time 
and means supplied for correcting it, as he would have done, 
that the countries he had discovered were the remotest parts 
of Asia. He had spent so many years of his life in the delays 
and opposition which beset him in high and low places, there 
was not afforded him sufficient time nor adequate means, even 
after the great discovery was accomplished, to continue his 
discoveries from the islands and the continents to the complete 
exploration of the earth and the perfect solution of the grand 
problems he had undertaken to unfold. Thet)retically Colum- 
bus realized all in his mind and convictions, and yet his bright- 
est fancies, his most soaring dreams, the most visionary flights 
of his fervid imagination never reached the knowledge of the 
full grandeur, the boundless development, the magnificent em- 
pires, the progress in arts and sciences, the political and con- 
stitutional liberty, the countless populations of civilized, en- 
lightened, brave, and irrepressible nations, nor the financial, 
commercial, scientific, and political attainments that were to 
flow from the great discovery he had made. It was a rare 
sight to see one man alone struggling to solve those mighty 
problems now so familiar to us. Though the idea of the other 
ocean dawned upon his penetrating mind, yet little did he imag- 



ON COLUMBUS. 595 

ine then that the two oceans encircled continents wholly distinct 
and separate from the continents of the old world, equal to them 
in extent, more favored in their location, their natural resources 
and potential wealth, the richness of their soil, their inexhaustible 
mineral treasures, and destined in time to surpass them in arts 
and sciences, in civilization and constitutional government, in 
civil and religious liberty, the results of material development, 
and in the grandeur of their power and domains. Little did he 
then imagine that four hundred years thence, in 1892, mighty 
empires and republics, with their teeming millions possessing 
the magnificent world he had given mankind, would assemble in 
common with the other nations of the earth in this new world of 
his, and render, exultantly, an unequalled and an unprecedented 
homage to the name, to the genius, and to the unrivalled ser- 
vices of Christopher Columbus ! Yet his enthusiastic spirit and 
his prophetic genius conceived an idea of future grandeur of the 
world he had disclosed to mankind. He realized them in extent 
and value, not in detail, as Asiatic, not as American. At times 
he seems to have seen all. To his intellect and heart maj'^ it 
be given, in other and better spheres, to see the discovery of 
these fair and majestic continents, as we see them now, crowned 
with all human development — the prophecy and the accomplish- 
ment ! 



NOTES. 



I. Allusions having frequently been made in regard to supposed proceedings, insti- 
tuted at Rome, for the canonization of Columbus, I have caused a direct inquiry to be 
made of the Sacred Congregation of Rites on this subject. The Right Rev. Monsig- 
nore O'Connell accordingly, at my request, addressed the following letter to His 
Eminence the Cardinal Secretary of the Congregation of Rites : 

"Your Eminence: Mr. Richard H. Clarke, a distinguished American Catholic 
historical writer, is now, at the request of many Catholics, engaged in writing a defence 
of the life of Christopher Columbus, and begs me to inquire of the Sacred Congrega- 
tion of Rites if the current report be true — to wit, that the Cause of Columbus was 
thrown out for the reason that, having abandoned his first lawful wife, he lived in con- 
cubinage with the second ? Which, etc. 

" D. J. O'Connell, 

" Jiecior of the American College, Via Umilta, ^o." 

To this letter His Eminence the Cardinal Secretary of the Sacred Congregation of 
Rites replied as follows : 

" 8 Via S. Apollinare. 

" The Sacred Congregation of Rites cannot treat of the Cause of Christopher Colum- 
bus till the diocesan processes be ended, and these have not thus far been begun." 

Thus it is clear that the process for the canonization of Columbus has never been 
commenced, and consequently has never been decided. 

n. The author announced in his prospectus that it was his intention to print the 
names of the subscribers in the work. But since that announcement the expression 
by the subscribers of a preference that this should not be done has reached us, and 
that preference is uniform. In deference, therefore, to the wishes of the subscribers 
themselves, I have concluded to omit the names. 



n 



INDEX. 



Mlizn, 6i. 

Affonso v., 35, 68. 

Africa, 5I-S3, S7i 6i. 

African slavery, 402-405. 

Aguado, Juan, 256, 321, 458-61, 480. 

Alexander III., i8. 

Alexander VI., 119, 222-25, 236. 

Alfraganus, 60. 

Aliaco, Cardinal, 63. 

America, Name of, 394-402. 

Anacaona, 315, 361, 544. 

Antilla, 43, 44, 45, 65. 

Antilles, 186. 

Antipodes, 20. 

Antonio, Nicolao, 103, 107. 

Arana, Diego de, 112, 135, 146, 147, l6i, 199,245, 

246. 
Arana, Rodrigo de, 112. 
Aranas, 101, iii, 112, 136, 146. 
Aristotle, 44, 61. 

Asia, 18, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 64, 65. 
Astrolabe, 69. 

Atlantic Ocean, 44, 60, 61, 65, 66, 160, 164. 
Atlantis, 43, 61. 
Augustine, St., 20. 
Ave Maria, igi. 
Ave Maris Stella, 170. 
Azores, 43, 52, 60, 66. 

Bahamas, 136. 

Ballester, 368, 381, 411. 

Bancroft, George, 21. 

Barber family, 155. 

Barrantes, 411. 

Behaim, Martin, 69. 

Behechio, 307, 

Belloni, 129. 

Belloy, Marquis de, 118. 

Benedictines, 276. 

Benjamin, Rabbi, 68. 

Berardi, Juanato, 232. 

Bethencourt, Jean de, 49. 

Boabdil, 90, 94. 

Bobadilla, 425-81. 

Boggiasco, 25. 

Boil, Rev. B., 229, 249, 252, 271, 277, 300, 302, 313, 

318. 
Boyle, Father B., 272, 304. 
Brandan, St., 45, 66. 
Brazil, 241, 399. 
Breviesca, the Jew, 344-46. 
Bristol, 47. 
Buldee, Raymond, 117. 



Cabot, Sebastian, 167, 168, 215. 

Cado, Fermin, 260, 263, 313. 

Calvi, 25. 

Cambalu, 59. 

Canaries, 43, 44, 49, 60, 236. 

Cancellieri, 104. 

Cannibals, 237, 391. 

Canonization, 124, 592, 596. 

Caonabo, 242, 246, 247, 261, 263, 267, 305, 306-10. 

Cape Bojador, 51, 52. 

Cape Nun, 52. 

Cape of Good Hope, 53, 57, 88. 

Cape St. Vincent, 51, 66. 

Cape Verde Islands, 50, 60. 

Caribbean Islands, 237. 

Caribs, 237, 241, 256. 

Carillo, Diego, 319. 

Carpini, 6g. 

Carvajal, 385-88. 

Casseria, 25. 

Catabanama, 546-50. 

Carthaginians, 43, 45, 61. 

Cathay, 41, 59, 64, 65. 

Celer, Quintus Metellus, 62. 

Centaurs, 263. 

Chanca, Dr., 234, 248, 251, 257. 

Charles V., 402. 

Charles VIII., 297. 

Chiavari, 25. 

China, Northern, 64. 

China, Southern, 59. 

Church, The first, 259. 

Cipango, 59, 65, 71, 171, 184, 187, 190. 

Civezza, Marcellino, 116, ir7, 145. 

Clemencin, 94. 

Cogoleto, 25. 

Colmenar, Alvarez de, 118. 

Colombo, Domenico, 25, 32, 42, 68. 

Colombo family, 121, 122. 

Colombos, Admirals, 29, 30, 32, 39, 45, 46. 

Columbus, Bartholomew, 33, 88, 89, no, 113, 124, 
297, 298, 360-75, 501, 575. 

Columbus, Christopher, birth, 24 ; birthplace, 24- 
51 ; portraits, 25 ; parents, 25 ; name, 26 ; bap- 
tism, 26 ; education, 26 ; trade, 27 ; his studies, 
28 ; sailor, 29 ; early voyages, 29, 30 ; in Portu- 
gal, 32 ; Madeira, 33 ; first marriage, 36, 37 ; 
birth of son Diego, 38 ; death of first wife, 
38 ; his hair turned gray, 39 ; voyage to Iceland, 

38, 47 ; dates in his career, 39 ; voyages to Africa, 

39, 48 ; draws maps, 42 ; at Lisbon, 42, 46, 56, 08, 
88 ; his studies, 43-45 ; naval engagement, 46 ; 
Columbus and Prince Henry, 34-54 ; personal ap- 



598 



INDEX. 



pearance, 54 ; character, 54-56 ; broaches his 
ideas, 57 ; Toscanelli correspondence, 57-59 ; 
grounds of his proposals, 60-66 ; before John II. — 
his plan rejected, 71 ; treachery, 72 ; leaves Por- 
tugal, accusation refuted, 73-77 ; in Spain, 78 ; 
doubtful dates, 79 ; Convent of La Rabida, 79, 
80 ; follows the court, 83 ; at Cordova, 82 ; Men- 
doza, Quintanella and Geraldini, 83 ; at court, 
84 ; Council of Salamanca, 84-87 ; again follows 
the court, 87, 88 ; at Lisbon, 88 ; sends Bartholo- 
mew to England, 89 ; in Spain again, 89 ; sum- 
moned to Seville, 89 ; a soldier, 90 ; leaves the 
court, 92 ; at La Rabida, 92-94, 159 ; Juan Perez 
de Marchena, 92 ; summoned before Isabella, 93 ; 
at court, 94 ; negotiations, 94, 95 ; departure from 
court, 95 ; sent for and returns, 97 ; again at 
court, 97 ; terms accepted, 97, 98 ; ennobled, g8 ; 
Colon, 98 ; at Cordova, 100 ; Beatrix Enriguez de 
Arana, 101-57 i second marriage, 101-57 ? ques- 
tion raised, 102 ; refuted, 100-57 ; thirty reasons 
sustaining second marriage, 111-27 ; his will, 
145 ; first voyage, 158-77 ; at Palos, 159 ; sails 
from Palos, 162 ; discovers the magnetic point of 
no variations, 165-68 ; flight of birds, 172 ; sees a 
light on land, 174 ; land discovered, 175 ; the 
landing, 177-82 ; explorations, 184-95 I desertion 
of Pinzon, 191 ; Cuba, 188 ; Hayti, 192 ; builds a 
fort at La Navidad, 199, 598 ; homeward voyage, 
201 ; Pinzon's return, 202 ; in Portugal, 206 ; at 
Palos, 209; at Barcelona, 213 ; honors to Colum- 
bus, 217 ; anecdote of the egg, 217, 218 ; line of 
demarcation, 219-26; second expedition, 231; 
enmity of officials, 233 ; day of sailing, 235 ; dis- 
covers Caribbean Islands, 237 ; at Ilispaniola, 
242 ; sends Caribs to Spain, 256 ; mutiny, 260, 
268 ; exploration of Hispaniola, 261 ; builds a 
fort, 263 ; distributes the army, 269 ; disaffection 
of Margarite and Boil, 271 ; excommunication, 274 ; 
exploration of Cuba and Jamaica, 278-95 ; attack 
of lethargy, 296 ; return to Hispaniola, 297 ; sends 
Indians to Spain, 300 ; desertion of Boil and Mar- 
garite, 304 ; rebellion of caciques suppressed, 305- 
II ; Guamiquina, Indian name of Columbus, 309 ; 
capture of Caonabo, 309 ; conquest and tribute, 
314 ; Aguado sent to Hispaniola, 321-25 ; returns 
to Spain, 325-32 ; accused at court, 326 ; gold 
discovered at Hayna, 326-29 ; arrival in Spain, 
332 ; kindly received at court, 334 ; third voyage, 
336-53 ; offered a principality, 337 ; establishes 
an entail by will, 338-40 ; delays, 341 ; insults, 
344; discovers the continent, 349-59; theories on 
the shape of the earth, 356 ; at Hispaniola, 356- 
60, 376 ; Roldan's rebellion, 377-90, 411-15 ; 
slavery, 391-94, 402-405 ; Roldan and Ojeda, 
411-15 ; rebellion of Moxica and Guevara, 416- 
19 ; despondency, 420, 421 ; hostility in Spain, 
422-29 ; superseded by Bobadilla, 425-40 ; ar- 
rested and imprisoned by Bobadilla, 437-43 ; 
sent to Spain in chains, 441-43 ; sensation on his 
arrival, 443 ; his letter to the governess, 445 ; again 
at court, 447 ; 'the accusations, 448-55 ; infringe- 
ments on his rights, 455-57 ; Bobadilla's admin- 



istration, 457 ; Ovando in Hispaniola, 458-61 ; 
Columbus in Spain, 461-74 ; book of prophecies, 
463-68 ; preparations for a fourth voyage, 468 ; 
Bank of St. George, 470 ; his signature, 471 ; 
fourth voyage, 475 ; Bobadilla and Roldan ship- 
wrecked, 478-81 ; refused a shelter, 480 ; cruise 
in search of the inter-oceanic passage, 481-95 ; 
Veragua, 495-512 ; the hostile Quibian and Vera- 
guans, 497-510 ; lethargy and vision, 510 ; depar- 
ture from Veragua, 513 ; stranded on Jamaica 
coast, 516 ; littera rarissifiia^ 518 ; revolt of Por- 
ras brothers, 525-29 ; delivered from exile, 539, 
550 ; arrives at Hispaniola, 551 ; returns to Spain, 
552 ; importunes the King, 554-73 ', end ap- 
proaching, 575 ; his will, 575-77 ; death, 577 ; 
epitaph, 579 ; his remains, 578-81 ; his family, 
582-84 ; character, 584-95. 

Columbus, Diego, brother of Christopher, 42, 225, 
226, 232, 234, 261, 298, 300, 319, 401, 431, 582, 583. 

Columbus, Diego, son of Christopher, 38, 79, 113, 

143. 159- 
Columbus, Fernando, 48, 60, 66, 102, 113, 117, 121, 

140, 141, 298. 
Columbus, Luis, 583. 
Continent discovered, 349-59. 
Cordova, 82, 87, 100, 113, 114, 116, 123, 145. 
Corea, Pedro, 35, 66. 
CosmographicE Introductio, 399. 
Cuba, 188, 191, 278-95. 
Cucarro, 25. 

Dahlgren, Mrs. Admiral, 148. 

Daly, Charles P., 25. 

Dante, 63. 

D'Arhues, 132. 

Demarcation, Bull of, 219-26. 

Desdemona, 137, 138, 148. 

Deza, Diego de, 87, 91, 100. 

Diaz, Bartholomew, 297. 

Diaz, Bernal, 88. 

Divina Commedia, 146. 

Don, Title of, 159. 

Dondero, A., 129, 142, 143. 

Dragon's Mouth, 352. 

Dublin Review, 27. 

DuBois, Constance Goddard, 148. 

Eleven thousand virgins, 240, 599. 

Encomiendas, 391, 402. 

England, 88, 89. 

Enriquez, Beatrix, toi-57, 246, 274, 298. 

Escobar, Rodrigo de, 161. 

Europe, 61, 65. 

Ferdinand and Isabella, 78, 81, 214, 227. 
Ferdinand, King, 81, 89, 97, 100, 105, 229, 272, 554- 

73- 
Fernandez, Garcia, 92, 96, 98. 
Fiesco, Bartholemew, 523, 524, 533-35. 
Finale, 25. 

Fiske, John, v., 75, 224, 276, 393, 404. 
Fonseca, Juan de, 228, 230, 233, 234, 412, 415, 
Fort St. Thomas, 263, 264, 266. 



INDEX. 



599 



France, 89, 92. 
Funchal, 38, 40, 43. 

Gama, Vasco de, 52. 

Garcia, Alphonso, 116, 142. 

Garcia, Gil, 234. 

Genoa, 25-27, 67, 78. 

Geraldini, 83, 100. 

Gibraltar, 64. 

Granada, go, 91, 93. 

Greenland, 17. 

Grotius, Hugo, 62. 

Guacanagari, 194-201, 236, 242-51, '306-1 2. 

Guamiquina, 309. 

Guatiquana, 307. 

Guarionex, 308, 360-70. 

Harrisse, 73. 

Hayna Mines discovered, 326. 

Hayti, 192, 193-201, 24I. 

Herrera, Antonio de, 118, 139. 

Higuey, 545-50. 

Hispaniola, 146, 192, 241, 266-70. 

Homer, 25. 

Humboldt, 108, 131, 133, 148. 

Iceland, 15, 47. 

India, 52, 61, 

Indians, 178, 227, 265, 266, 364-66, 402-405, 541-50. 

Indies, Council of, 227. 

Innocent, Pope, IV., 69. 

Inter Cetera, Bull of, 222. 

Irving, Washington, 20, 107, 148, 223. 

Isabella, 79, 83, 96, 97, 114, 115, 229, 258, 557-62. 

Isabella, City of, 252-56, 259, 557-62. 

Jamaica, 285, 291. 

Japan, 59. 

John II., 6g, 70-72, 88, 89, 227, 230. 

Julius II., 567. 

Kenrick, Francis Patrick, 223. 
Khan, Grand, 19, 56, 59, 186. 
Khan, Kayuk, 18, ig. 
Knight, Father A. G., 27, 105. 

La Cosa, Juan de, 232. 

Lactantius, 20. 

Las Casas, Bishop Bartolome, v., 27, 232, 393, 396, 

401, 402-405. 
Las Casas, Francesco, 232. 
Lazzaroni, M. A., 118, 129, 141. 
Ledesma, Pedro, 508, 537, 538. 
Lisbon, 33, 40. 
Loetus, Pomponius, 215. 
Longfellow, 63. 

Lorgues, Roselly de, v., 21, 79, 133, 134, 139, 
Louis, St., i3. 
Lud, Walter, 398. 
Luxan, Juan de, 264. 

Machico, 35, 36, 43. 
Madeira, 33, 50. 
Maldonado, ISL, 234, 251. 
Mandeville, Sir John, 64, 68. 



Maney, Regina, 34, 76. 

Mangi, 59, 65. 

Manicatex, 311. 

Maps : Ptolemy, 41 ; Marco Polo, 41 ; Mauro, 41, 

Marchena, Antonio de, 231, 252, 259. 

Marchena, Juan Perez de, 79, 94. 

Margarite, Pedro, 232, 256, 264, 266, 271, 302, 313, 

318. 
Marine Pulmonate, 15, 19. 
Marque, Diego, 238. 

Marriage, Law of, 125, 129 ; at Common Law, 156. 
Martyr, Peter, 216, 254. 
Mayobanex, 372-76. 
Mayorazgo, 120. 
Medina Cell, 79, 100, 123. 
Medina Sidonia, 79, 100, 123. 
Mediterranean, 27, 28. 
Mela, Pomponius, 17, 62. 

Mendez, Diego, 501-12, 517, 522-30, 533-35i S39- 
Mendoza, Cardinal, 83, 92-93, 100, 217. 
Missionaries, 229. 
Moniz, 27, 34. 
Moniz, Philippa Moniz de Perestrello de Mello, 34, 

37» 38, 39> 73. 77i i43i I44- 
Moniz, Vasco Martins, 35, 36. 
Monteno, Mariana, 27. 
Moors, 45, 49, 87, 93. 
Moquer, 161, 162. 
Moya, Marchioness de, 93, 94, 96. 

Napione, Galeani, 104, 149. 
l^avarrete, M. F. de, 105, 106, 119, 149. 
Navidad, La, 199, 242-47. 
Needle, Magnetic, 165-68. 
Nepos, Cornelius, 62. 
Nino, P. A., 161. 
Northmen, vi., 17, 47. 
Novus Mundus, 395-400. 

Ojeda, Alonzo de, 231, 238, 255, 305, 306, 308, 411- 

15- 
Olano, Sebastian de, 234. 
Oneglia, 25. 
Orinoco, 354. 
Othello, 137, 148. 

Ovando, 458-61, 53'-33. 539i 54O-50- 
Oviedo, 139. 
Ozema River, 326, 360. 

Palestine, 69. 

Palma y Freytas, 104, 121. 

Palos, 93, 160-62. 

Pane, Roman, 265. 

Papal Power, 222-25. 

Paria, 353. 

Parillas, P. S. de, 143. 

Pavia, University of, 26, 27. 

Peiiasola, 160. 

Pereira, Gabriel, 34, 66. 

Perestrello, 27, 34. 

Peschel, 393. 

Pinelo, Francisco, 228, 230. 

Pinilla, 160. 



6oo 



INDEX. 



Pinzons, 92, 160, 161, 163, 191-211, 318. . 

Pisa, Bernal Diaz de, 234, 260. 

Plato, Dialogues of, 16, 43, 61. 

Pliny, 62. 

Polo, Marco, 18, 19, 41, 58, 59, 64, 65, 68. 

Ponce de Leon, 232. 

Popes, Temporal power of, 222-25. 

Porras brothers, 525, 529, 535-39- 

Porto Santo, 35, 66. 

Portuguese voyages, 41, 42, 51-53, 56, 57, 68, 300. 

Pradella, 25. 

Prado, Prior of El, 79, 84. 

Prescott, W. H., 21. 

Prester John, 18, 56, 6q. 

Prince Henry the Navigator, 34, 50-53, 68. 

Ptolemy, 17, 41, 47, 58, Co. 

Pulci, 63. 

Queen's Gardens, 288. 

Quibian, 496-508. 

Quinsai, 59. 

Quintanella, 83, 94, 95, 96, 100. 

Quintero, Cristoval, 161, 163. 

Quinto, 25. 

Rabida, Convent of, 79, 131. 

Rascon, Gomez, 161. 

Repartimientos, 408, 543. 

Ringmann, 398. 

Roldan, Bartholomew, 161, 163, 233, 367-71, 377- 

90, 406, 411-19, 478-81. 
Romans, Marriage among the, 141. 
Rubruquls, 69. 
Ruiz, Sancho, 161. 

Saint Die, 397-400. 

Salamanca. 84-87, 91. 

Salve Regina, 170, 191, 237. 

Sanchez, Alonzo, 218. ' 

Sanchez, Roderigo, 161. 

Saragosso Sea, 170. 

San Salvador, 177. 

Santa Fe, 93, 95, 97. 

Santangel, Luis de, 94, 95, 96. 

Savona, 25. 



Seneca, 61, 62. 

Sepulchre, Holy, 90, gg. 

Serpent's Mouth, 351. 

oeven Cities, 44, 66. 

Seville, 89, gi. 

Shakespeare, 139. 

Shelford on Marriage, 127, 141. 

Slavery, 391, 402-405. 

Smith, J. Toulman, 62. 

Soria, Juan de, 228, 230, 233. 

Spain, 78, 140. 

Spotorno, 105, 149. 

St. Elmo, 237. 

Strabo, 17, 61. 

Swift V. Kelly, 129. 

Talavera, 84, 87, 91, 94, 98. 

Tarducci, 25. 

Tennyson, 24, 25. 

Terrarossa, 25. 

Toledo, Maria de, 112. 

Torquemada, 132. 

Torres, Antonio, 297, 319. 

Toscanelli, Dr. Paul, 19, 39, 42, 57, 65. 

Trent, Council of, 126, 127, 128, 141. 

Ursula, St., 240. 

Vaz, Tristan, 35, 52. 

Vega, Royal, 262, 266. 

Venice, 67, 78. 

Veragua, 437-514. 

Vespucius, Americus, 232, 395-402, 564, 565. 

Vincenti, Martin, 65, 

Waldseemiiller, 397. 
Warner, Lord and Lady, 155. 
Wheaton, 224. 

Winsor, Justin, v., vi., 20, 66., 73, 98, 99, 168, 391, 
394- 

Xaragua, 543-45- 

Yucatan, 482, 483. 

Zarco, Joiio Gonqalves, 35, 52. 
Zuniga, 139. 



THE END. 



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